The difference between Hotkey, accelerator, and composite key.

For Hotkey:

ON_HOTKEY()...

RegisterHotKey()...

 

For accelerator:

In Frame Window, LoadAccelTable(MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDR_MAINFRAME)) (automatically)

Other window,  ::LoadAccelerators(AfxGetModuleInstance(), MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDR_MAINFRAME));

TranslateAcceletrator(m_hWnd, hAccl, lpMsg);

 

 

For Composite Key:

Override PreTranslateMessage(MSG * pMsg) member function.

if (pMsg->message == WM_KEYDOWN && pMsg->wParam == VK_F3)

{

   if (GetKeyState(VK_SHIFT) & 0x8000)

      MessageBox("F3 and Shift is pressed");

   else

      MessageBox("Only F3 is pressed");

}

 

 

For Hot key, it is the system wide. For example, if we register a hot key, it may conflict with other applications if other apps also register it. More over, If our app process the hot key message, other app no longer to deal it at all. F3 as example, if our app implement F3 search, other app has no chance to do so.

But for accelerator and composite key, they are app independent.

 

CWnd::OnCmdMsg() can be used to change the regular WM_COMMAND routine, it is especially useful if you want to route WM_COMMAND to the non frame /view window, such as general CWnd window not derived from CView, Cdocument, CFrameWnd, CDocTemplate.