Disable ASCII Control characters shortcuts?

Danny Phan · Feb 4, 2016, 4:48 AM

These are a list of shortcuts for ASCII control characters I’ve found so far. I wish to keep all of them from appearing while I’m typing. I can accidentally hit these shortcuts when I’m trying to use other shortcuts like Ctrl + Z or Ctrl + V, for example. I’m using Windows and I could find no way to remove these from the shortcut mapper.

~ Shift + Esc = (ESC)
~ Ctrl + E = (ENQ)
~ Ctrl + R = (DC2)
~ Ctrl + Pause\Break = (ETX)
~ Ctrl + Shift + Y = (EM)
~ Ctrl + Shift + W = (ETB)
~ Ctrl + Shift + O = (SI)
~ Ctrl + Shift + A = (SOH)
~ Ctrl + Shift + D = (EOT)
~ Ctrl + Shift + G = (BEL)
~ Ctrl + Shift + H = (BS)
~ Ctrl + Shift + Z = (SUB)
~ Ctrl + Shift + X = (CAN)
~ Ctrl + Shift + C = (ETX)
~ Ctrl + Shift + v = (SYN)
~ Ctrl + Shift + B = (STX)
~ Ctrl + Shift + N = (SO)
~ Ctrl + Shift + 6 + (RS)
~ Ctrl + Shift + -(Dash) = (US)

Scott Sumner · Feb 4, 2016, 12:23 PM

I find something along these lines an excellent feature suggestion!

dail · Feb 4, 2016, 2:10 PM

Couldn’t agree more. Don’t know how many times I’ve done this. Especially Ctrl+Shift+Z.

Claudia Frank · Feb 4, 2016, 5:04 PM

Well, kind of a hack, you could simply assign shortcuts to no action macro, couldn’t you?
Something like

    <Macro name="RemoveControlCharSUB" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="90">
        <Action type="" message="" wParam="" lParam="" sParam="" />
    </Macro>

Cheers
Claudia

dail · Feb 4, 2016, 6:56 PM

I’m going to shamelessly promote my new plugin. If you install the plugin and put the following code in the startup script it will get rid of most of these shortcuts.

editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('E'), SCMOD_CTRL, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('R'), SCMOD_CTRL, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('E'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('Y'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('W'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('O'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('A'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('D'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('G'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('H'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('Z'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('X'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('C'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('V'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('B'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('N'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte('6'), SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL)

Claudia Frank · Feb 4, 2016, 8:26 PM

@dail there is nothing to shame about, you offer a new plugin and a solution to a problem.
Sounds like a successful day to me ;-)
And you remembered me about a function AssignCmdKey which I have nearly forgotten.

So a python script would look like this

editor.assignCmdKey(ord('E')+(2<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('R')+(2<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('Y')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('W')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('O')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('A')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('D')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('G')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('H')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('Z')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('X')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('C')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('V')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('B')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('N')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('6')+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(189+(3<<16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(27+(1<<16),2172)

editor.assignCmdKey(19+(2<<16),2172)  # this seems not to work although 19 should be the key code of break key

Cheers
Claudia

dail · Feb 4, 2016, 8:29 PM

Yeah I’ve always been a fan of the PythonScript plugin (even stole code from that project :)). However for alot of my uses it was over kill in terms of RAM and initialization time to make it worth it.

Claudia Frank · Feb 4, 2016, 8:35 PM

That’s the beauty of having multiple programming/scripting languages, isn’t it. ;-)
Having lua as npp scripting extension can force me to learn more about it because
it’s also an extension to wireshark afaik.

Thank you
Claudia

Claudia Frank · Feb 4, 2016, 11:23 PM

ok this should do the trick for CTRL+break

editor.assignCmdKey(3+(KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)

Cheers
Claudia

Claudia Frank · Feb 4, 2016, 11:51 PM

After testing again, I saw that SHIFT+ESC still worked, strange.
So figured out, that

editor.assignCmdKey(27+(1<<16),2172)

is wrong and should be

editor.assignCmdKey(7+(1<<16),2172)

instead. Hmm…

So the full list more user friendly

editor.assignCmdKey(ord('E') + (KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('R') + (KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('Y') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('W') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('O') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('A') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('D') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('G') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('H') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('Z') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('X') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('C') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('V') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('B') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('N') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(ord('6') + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(189 + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(7 + (KEYMOD.SHIFT << 16),2172)
editor.assignCmdKey(3 + (KEYMOD.CTRL << 16),2172)

Cheers
Claudia

Claudia Frank · Feb 5, 2016, 2:11 AM

Of course it must be

After testing again, I saw that SHIFT+ESC still didn’t work, strange.

Cheers
Claudia

Danny Phan · Feb 8, 2016, 10:18 AM

Thanks! It worked out brilliantly. This was something that always bothered me about Notepad++. I’m not too big a coder myself, and I’m definitely sure I’ll never use those control characters. Glad I finally got rid of these shortcuts.

I got dail’s plugin working. I couldn’t get Claudia’s python code to work though. I downloaded Python Script 1.0.6 from the plugins manager and upon pressing Show Console, I got an Unknown Exception error message. Pressing the Show Console button again allowed me to popup the console, but I suspect the reason why the console isn’t working because of the unknown exception.

Running
editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte(‘E’), SCMOD_CTRL, SCI_NULL)
in the console did not change my key assignments.

In addition to dail’s code, you should also add these 3 lines. I came up with this code thanks to Claudia’s previous code.
<pre><code>
editor:AssignCmdKey(3, SCMOD_CTRL, SCI_NULL) – CTRL + PAUSE/BREAK
editor:AssignCmdKey(7, SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL) – SHIFT + ESC
editor:AssignCmdKey(189, SCMOD_CTRL + SCMOD_SHIFT, SCI_NULL) – Ctrl + Shift + -(Dash)
</pre></code>

On a side note, I can’t get the markdown for codeblocks to show up in a post’s preview.

dail · Feb 8, 2016, 1:29 PM

Running editor:AssignCmdKey(string.byte(‘E’), SCMOD_CTRL, SCI_NULL) in the console did not change my key assignments.

That’s weird. It works for me. Maybe there is some other plugin or keyboard configuration that is messing with it.

Thanks for those extra 3 shortcuts. They worked fine for me!

Also, to fully get rid of those ASCII control codes, you should probably disable those on both “views”. So instead of using editor you should set the shortcut on both editor1 and editor2 instead; for example…

editor1:AssignCmdKey(3, SCMOD_CTRL, SCI_NULL)
editor2:AssignCmdKey(3, SCMOD_CTRL, SCI_NULL)

I believe this would also apply to the PythonScript plugin.

guy038 · Feb 8, 2016, 8:54 PM

Hi Danny and All,

Once you inhibited these shortcuts, you’re still able to write control characters, in your text, with the classical Windows method !

Hit down the ALT key
While keeping the ALT key pressed, type, on the NUMERIC keypad, the three digits, of a number between 001 and 031
Release all the keys => the appropriate Control character should be inserted, at the current cursor position

For instance : Press ALT and 0 , 1 , 8 would write the 18th letter of the alphabet ( the letter R ) => DC2

So :

ALT  +  0 0 1    =>    SOH      ( A )
ALT  +  0 0 2    =>    STX      ( B )
ALT  +  0 0 3    =>    ETX      ( C )
ALT  +  0 0 4    =>    EOT      ( D )
ALT  +  0 0 5    =>    ENQ      ( E )
ALT  +  0 0 6    =>    ACK      ( F )
ALT  +  0 0 7    =>    BEL      ( G )
ALT  +  0 0 8    =>    BS       ( H )
ALT  +  0 0 9    =>    TAB      ( I )
ALT  +  0 1 0    =>    LF       ( J )
ALT  +  0 1 1    =>    VT       ( K )
ALT  +  0 1 2    =>    FF       ( L )
ALT  +  0 1 3    =>    CR       ( M )
ALT  +  0 1 4    =>    SO       ( N )
ALT  +  0 1 5    =>    SI       ( O )
ALT  +  0 1 6    =>    DLE      ( P )
ALT  +  0 1 7    =>    DC1      ( Q )
ALT  +  0 1 8    =>    DC2      ( R )
ALT  +  0 1 9    =>    DC3      ( S )
ALT  +  0 2 0    =>    DC4      ( T )
ALT  +  0 2 1    =>    NAK      ( U )
ALT  +  0 2 2    =>    SYN      ( V )
ALT  +  0 2 3    =>    ETB      ( W )
ALT  +  0 2 4    =>    CAN      ( X )
ALT  +  0 2 5    =>    EM       ( Y )
ALT  +  0 2 6    =>    SUB      ( Z )
ALT  +  0 2 7    =>    ESC      (   )
ALT  +  0 2 8    =>    FS       (   )
ALT  +  0 2 9    =>    GS       (   )
ALT  +  0 3 0    =>    RS       (   )
ALT  +  0 3 1    =>    US       (   )

Only, the control character NULL can’t be written, with that method. Instead, you’ll use the ASCII Insertion Panel ( Menu Edit - Character Panel ! )

Cheers,

guy038

Claudia Frank · Feb 10, 2016, 7:47 PM

Hi @guy038,

yes, of course, the assignCmdKey is an scintilla internal function only.
Not sure if I get your point so.

Cheers
Claudia

Claudia Frank · Feb 10, 2016, 7:49 PM

@Danny-Phan

if you are still interested in getting the python script code working I assume
you need to install the python script plugin by using the msi package.
It seems that plugin manager has some serious problems with this plugin.

Cheers
Claudia

Scott Sumner · Mar 3, 2017, 2:37 PM

Just noting that a similar thing is discussed in this thread as well:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/12901/shortcut-map-num-performs-function-but-also-adds/8

MaximilianKohler · Feb 3, 2024, 1:15 PM

So using the luascript addon with those start-up lines https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/11233/disable-ascii-control-characters-shortcuts/5 is still the only way to do this?

Alan Kilborn · Feb 3, 2024, 1:30 PM

@MaximilianKohler

Well, there are several ways to achieve it, but if you mean can Notepad++ alone achieve it, the answer is No, it can’t.

The disadvantage of the LuaScript approach might be that no one has “looped” it, and every discrete key must be handled. Perhaps I would “loop” it, if I knew Lua…

Anyway, another approach where you don’t have to list every key is with a PythonScript, such as the one shown HERE.

mkupper · Feb 4, 2024, 6:10 AM

@Alan-Kilborn said in Disable ASCII Control characters shortcuts?:

if you mean can Notepad++ alone achieve it, the answer is No, it can’t.

@Claudia-Frank’s suggestion in 2016 seems to work. The following will disable nearly all of the keyboards combinations in @Danny-Phan’s original list.

    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Shift_Esc_ESC" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="27">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_E_ENQ" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="69">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_R_DC2" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="82">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_-_US" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="189">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_6_RS" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="54">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_A_SOH" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="65">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_C_ETX" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="67">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_D_EOT" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="68">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_H_BS" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="72">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_N_SO" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="78">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_O_SI" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="79">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_Y_EM" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="89">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_V_SYN" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="86">
        <Action type="0" message="0" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>

Some keyboard combinations from the original list are now being used by v8.6.2. If you are using an older version of Notepad++ then include these to intercept these keyboard combinations:

    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_B_STX" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="66">
        <Action type="" message="" wParam="" lParam="" sParam="" />
    </Macro>	
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_G_BEL" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="71">
        <Action type="" message="" wParam="" lParam="" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_W_ETB" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="87">
        <Action type="" message="" wParam="" lParam="" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_X_CAN" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="88">
        <Action type="" message="" wParam="" lParam="" sParam="" />
    </Macro>	
    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Shift_Z_SUB" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="90">
        <Action type="" message="" wParam="" lParam="" sParam="" />
    </Macro>

I could not figure out how to handle Ctrl+Pause/Break. The code should be

    <Macro name="RemoveKey_Ctrl_Break_ETX" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="19">
        <Action type="" message="" wParam="" lParam="" sParam="" />
    </Macro>

but the ETX still shows up. I tried all eight combinations of Ctrl, Alt, Shift with key code 19 but none of them caught Ctrl+Pause/Break. As ETX shows up in the editor indicates it is getting a key code. Either it’s not code 19 or there is something else going on that’s special with Ctrl+Break.