TextField() Prevent ctrl+a (select all)

How can I prevent ctrl+a from functioning with editable TextField()

From stackoverflow

• Not tested, but perhaps you could catch the selectAll event on the TextField and prevent it bubbling up, or clear the selection (not sure when the event is fired).

  Tom : its not for FLEX3, its in FLASH PLAYER 10

  igkuk7 : Sorry, I assumed from the tag in your question you were using Flex. I have no other ideas that haven't already been suggested. Hope you find an answer.

  Tom : I try to be more specific now: my question is for FLEX; but the selectAll event you mentioned is not working with FLEX. Flex is using flash 9, but SelectAll event is available in flash 10 only.

• Use the setFocus function paired with a KeyboardEvent listener:
  

  <xml version="1.0"?>
  <!-- menus/SimpleMenuControl.mxml -->
  <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" width="800" initialize="init()" >
   <mx:TextInput id="nom"/>
   <mx:Script>
    <![CDATA[
     private function init():void
     {
      addEventListener( KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP,  edit );
      addEventListener( KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN,  edit );
     } 
  
     private function edit( event:KeyboardEvent ):void
     {
      if( event.type == KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN && event.ctrlKey ) setFocus();
      else nom.setFocus();
      nom.selectionEndIndex = nom.selectionBeginIndex = nom.text.length;
     }
    ]]>
   </mx:Script>
  
  </mx:Application>
  

  The setFocus means that the Text object will no longer listen to any keyboard events.

  I would not recommend using the enabled property as that will gray-out the textarea.

  Tom : setFocus() gives : 1180: Call to a possibly undefined method

  Tom : if (evt.ctrlKey) stage.focus = this; does nothing to ctrl+a

  Christopher W. Allen-Poole : Sorry. For some reason, only half of the code appeared above. I fixed it now. If you're working in Flex 3, then setFocus() will work on any UIComponent, but there is a modified version below which will work on a normal flash.text.TextField.

• The previous example only works with Flex Text and TextArea objects, this works with all flash.text.* objects.
  

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" creationComplete="init()">
   <mx:Script>
    <![CDATA[
     import mx.core.UIComponent;
  
     private var t:TextField;
     private function init():void
     {
      t = new TextField();
      t.height = 80;
      t.width  = 100;
      t.type   = TextFieldType.INPUT;
      t.multiline = true;
      var c:UIComponent = new UIComponent();
      c.addChild( t );
      foo.addChild( c );
      addEventListener( KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP,         edit );
      addEventListener( KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN,       edit );
              } 
  
     private function edit( event:KeyboardEvent ):void
     {
      if( event.type == KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN && event.ctrlKey )
      {
       t.type = TextFieldType.DYNAMIC; // Dynamic texts cannot be edited.  You might be able to remove this line.
       t.selectable = false; // If selectable is false, then Ctrl-a won't do anything.
      }
      else
      {
       t.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;
       t.selectable = true;
      }
     }
    ]]>
   </mx:Script>
   <mx:Canvas id="foo" height="90" width="110" backgroundColor="#FFFFFF" />
  </mx:Application>