Disabling a Function Key

Jean recently asked if there is a way to disable the F1 key in Excel. It seems that she frequently presses F1 when she means to press F2, and doing so is bothersome.

The only way to disable a key such as this is to create a macro. The following macro will do the trick quite nicely:

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
    Application.OnKey "{F1}", ""
End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(CANCEL As Boolean)
    Application.OnKey "{F1}"
End Sub

Actually, there are two macros here. The first one executes whenever the workbook is opened, and the second is executed when the workbook is closed. In the case of the first macro, the OnKey method traps every keypress of F1 and cancels it. The macro that runs when the workbook closes restores the normal operation of the F1 key.

These macros can be placed in a given workbook, in which case they will only apply while that workbook is open. If you want them to apply at all times when using Excel, store the macros in the Personal.xls workbook. (The use of this workbook has been covered in other issues of ExcelTips. You can also find information on it in the Excel Help system.)