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Can I get Ctrl-a to be select all?

Anonymous
2021-07-16T18:59:48+00:00

In a data entry form I created for my record album database, I often want to select all of the text in a field so I can copy it to another field. But apparently the geniuses at M$FT determined that Ctrl+a should jump to the first record in the database apparently ignoring (or being unaware of) the claim that all of the Office apps have a common UI/UX.

Is there a way that I can return this shortcut to its usual meaning?

Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For home | Windows

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  1. Tom van Stiphout 40,201 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-07-16T21:25:49+00:00

    One more thing after a bit more experimenting:

    If your form is in Form View, and you are on the non-first record, indeed Ctrl+A takes you to the first record, but that is not all. It has actually selected all records, as you can see after Ctrl+C and paste into Notepad.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-07-16T21:30:37+00:00

    Is there a way that I can return this shortcut to its usual meaning?

    Hi Cynthia,

    For Access the usual meaning is the way as it is.

    Tom suggested to press F2.

    For other reasons I have disabled all F-keys in my applications, so pressing F2 does not give the wanted result for me.

    But in the KeyDown event of the control you could check on KeyCode = 65 ("a") and Shift = 2 (Ctrl).

    In that case set KeyCode = 0, and set for the current control:

    .SelStart = 0

.SelLength = Len(cur\_ctl.Text)

    As a side note, this behaviour is standard in my applications.

    Imb.

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  1. Tom van Stiphout 40,201 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-07-16T21:20:56+00:00

    Ctrl+A is used to select all rows in a datasheet.

    Fighting built-in commands is not easy, but if you are so inclined: check out the AutoKeys macro in the Help file.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-07-16T21:03:51+00:00

    F2 selects the text in a control.

    Thanks. That works, but I really don't like having to learn and remember different shortcuts for each application. Ctrl+a is p[retty standard across Windows apps.

    I'll look into defining my own shortcuts.

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  2. Tom van Stiphout 40,201 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-07-16T20:11:09+00:00

    F2 selects the text in a control.

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