Best way to implement keyboard shortcuts in a Windows Forms application?

I'm looking for a best way to implement common Windows keyboard shortcuts (for example Ctrl+F, Ctrl+N) in my Windows Forms application in C#.

The application has a main form which hosts many child forms (one at a time). When a user hits Ctrl+F, I'd like to show a custom search form. The search form would depend on the current open child form in the application.

I was thinking of using something like this in the ChildForm_KeyDown event:

   if (e.KeyCode == Keys.F && Control.ModifierKeys == Keys.Control)
        // Show search form

But this doesn't work. The event doesn't even fire when you press a key. What is the solution?

Solution 1:

You probably forgot to set the form's KeyPreview property to True. Overriding the ProcessCmdKey() method is the generic solution:

protected override bool ProcessCmdKey(ref Message msg, Keys keyData) {
  if (keyData == (Keys.Control | Keys.F)) {
    MessageBox.Show("What the Ctrl+F?");
    return true;
  }
  return base.ProcessCmdKey(ref msg, keyData);
}

Solution 2:

On your Main form

1. Set KeyPreview to True

2. Add KeyDown event handler with the following code

   private void MainForm_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
   {
       if (e.Control && e.KeyCode == Keys.N)
       {
           SearchForm searchForm = new SearchForm();
           searchForm.Show();
       }
   }