Override the keyboard shortcuts in Angular Document editor component

27 Apr 20247 minutes to read

Document Editor triggers the keyDown event every time when any key is entered and provides an instance of DocumentEditorKeyDownEventArgs. You can use the isHandled property to override the keyboard shortcut behavior.

Preventing default keyboard shortcut

The following code shows how to prevent the CTRL + C keyboard shortcut for copying selected content in document editor.

app.component.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core'
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser'
import { ButtonModule } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-buttons'
import { DocumentEditorAllModule } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-documenteditor'



import { Component, ViewEncapsulation, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
import {
    DocumentEditorComponent, SfdtExportService, SelectionService, EditorService, DocumentEditorKeyDownEventArgs
} from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-documenteditor';

@Component({
imports: [
        
        ButtonModule,
        DocumentEditorAllModule
    ],


standalone: true,
      selector: 'app-container',
      template: `<div>
      <ejs-documenteditor #document_editor height="330px" style="width:100%;display:block" [isReadOnly]=false [enableSelection]=true [enableSfdtExport]=true [enableEditor]=true (keyDown)="onKeyDown($event)">
      </ejs-documenteditor>
      </div>`,
      encapsulation: ViewEncapsulation.None,
      //Inject require services.
      providers: [SelectionService, EditorService, SfdtExportService]
})

export class AppComponent {

    public onKeyDown(args: DocumentEditorKeyDownEventArgs): void {
          let keyCode: number = args.event.which || args.event.keyCode;
          let isCtrlKey: boolean = (args.event.ctrlKey || args.event.metaKey) ? true : ((keyCode === 17) ? true : false);
          //67 is the character code for 'C'
          if (isCtrlKey && keyCode === 67) {
              //To prevent copy operation set isHandled to true
              args.isHandled = true;
          }
    }
}

main.ts

import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import 'zone.js';
bootstrapApplication(AppComponent).catch((err) => console.error(err));

Override or define the keyboard shortcut

Override or define a new keyboard shortcut behavior instead of preventing the keyboard shortcut.

For example, Ctrl + S keyboard shortcut saves the document in SFDT format by default, and there is no behavior for Ctrl + Alt + S. The following code demonstrates how to override the Ctrl + S shortcut to save a document in DOCX format and define Ctrl + Alt + S to save the document in SFDT format.

app.component.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core'
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser'
import { ButtonModule } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-buttons'
import { DocumentEditorAllModule } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-documenteditor'



import { Component, ViewEncapsulation, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
import {
    DocumentEditorComponent, SelectionService, EditorService, DocumentEditorKeyDownEventArgs, SfdtExportService, WordExportService
} from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-documenteditor';

@Component({
imports: [
        
        ButtonModule,
        DocumentEditorAllModule
    ],


standalone: true,
      selector: 'app-container',
      template: `<div>
      <ejs-documenteditor #document_editor height="330px" style="width: 100%;display:block" [isReadOnly]=false [enableSelection]=true [enableSfdtExport]=true [enableEditor]=true (keyDown)="onKeyDown($event)">
      </ejs-documenteditor>
      </div>`,
      encapsulation: ViewEncapsulation.None,
      providers: [SelectionService, EditorService, SfdtExportService, WordExportService]
})
export class AppComponent {
    @ViewChild('document_editor')
    public documentEditor?: DocumentEditorComponent;

    public onKeyDown(args: DocumentEditorKeyDownEventArgs): void {
          let keyCode: number = args.event.which || args.event.keyCode;

          let isCtrlKey: boolean = (args.event.ctrlKey || args.event.metaKey) ? true : ((keyCode === 17) ? true : false);

          let isAltKey: boolean = args.event.altKey ? args.event.altKey : ((keyCode === 18) ? true : false);

          // 83 is the character code for 'S'
          if (isCtrlKey && !isAltKey && keyCode === 83) {
              //To prevent default save operation, set the isHandled property to true
              args.isHandled = true;
              //Download the document in docx format.
              (this.documentEditor as DocumentEditorComponent).save('sample', 'Docx');
              args.event.preventDefault();
          } else if (isCtrlKey && isAltKey && keyCode === 83) {
              //Download the document in sfdt format.
              (this.documentEditor as DocumentEditorComponent).save('sample', 'Sfdt');
          }
    }
}

main.ts

import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import 'zone.js';
bootstrapApplication(AppComponent).catch((err) => console.error(err));