Buttonclick event - ctrlKey always false

Photoshop
1

I would like to check wether the control key on the keyboard was pressed while a button was clicked.

async function main(eventDetails){
    console.log(eventDetails.shiftKey);

document.getElementById("XYZ").addEventListener('click', (event) => { main(event); });

This works fine (also with “eventDetails.altKey”). If i exchange it to “ctrlKey”, however, I always get false. I mean, as it generally works, is it a bug? Or am I (again) missing something? If i just console log the event itself, it says the object has a ctrlKey attribute…

I found this, which says its just not working, but nobody else explains why in the thread:

In the end, the solution just uses “event.ctrlKey”…

2

Sometimes it is different for MacOS. They have their own key.

3

Try this

    console.log(eventDetails.metaKey || eventDetails.ctrlKey);
4

That did the trick, thanks, Wanokuni!

So basically on Windows the control key isnt “ctrlKey”, but the “metaKey”, which I think is very wierd. Shouldnt the “metaKey” rather be the Windows key, which opens the start menu, and “ctrlKey” be the control key on both platforms? (Just a rhetoric question, no need for an answer…)

1 Like
5

No, on Windows, the Ctrl key is referred to as the CtrlKey, while on macOS, it is called the Command key (metaKey), which corresponds to the Ctrl key on Windows.

6

the ctrlKey part of ctrlKey || metaKey is superfluous. on macOS, this property will be true when the ctrl (^) key is pressed, which is undesirable. on Windows, this property will always be false; indeed confusingly metaKey corresponds to Ctrl instead. so if you only want to check for ⌘ on macOS and Ctrl on Windows, you should only check for metaKey.

1 Like