Entry

How can I capture key presses?

Apr 21st, 2003 03:39
Shashank Tripathi, Martin Honnen, Nathan Wallace, Martin Honnen

The following will capture key presses inside the document for NN4 and 
all key pressed (inside the document and input fields) for IE4/5 and 
NN6 (as here key events are bubbled up):
document.onkeypress =
  function (evt) {
    var c = document.layers ? evt.which 
            : document.all ? event.keyCode
            : evt.keyCode;
    alert('pressed ' + String.fromCharCode(c) + '(' + c + ')');
    return true;
  };
If you need for NN4 to capture keypresses in text fields/areas too add
if (document.layers)
  document.captureEvents(Event.KEYPRESS);
NOTE: 
If the code can be made to be DOM compliant then it will also work 
with other browsers including Mozilla (+ its variants) and the Operas. 
This is addressed in the following FAQT file: 
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/11802