I was just about to replace a TEdit + TButton combination with one TButtonedEdit control but when I tried to test it, I found no way to "press" the (right) button using the keyboard.
I tried Alt+Enter, Alt+Down, Alt+Right, the same keys with Ctrl and a few more key combinations but none of them worked. The VCL sources did not shed any light on this issue either (but hey "professional programmers don't look at the VCL sources" anyway)
Am I missing something?
This is with Delphi 2010 on a Windows XP box, the TButtonedEdit component was introduced in Delphi 2009 IIRC.
Note: I have accepted Andreas Rejbrand's answer because it answers the question. But I have also added my own answer for the benefit of those who might be interested in what I actually implemented.
No, there is no such keyboard shortcut, partly (maybe) because of the ambiguity in which button (the left or right button) the keyboard shortcut should execute.
I always do it like this:
procedure TForm1.ButtonedEdit1KeyDown(Sender: TObject; var Key: Word;
Shift: TShiftState);
begin
if (Key = VK_RETURN) and (ssCtrl in Shift) then
ButtonedEdit1RightButtonClick(Sender);
end;
The Ctrl+Enter shortcut is very natural if the button displays a modal dialog (which helps the user fill the edit box), or something similar. If it instead executes a procedure taking the edit text as argument (e.g., an address bar or a search box), Enter alone is more suitable. If the button is a clear button (that clears the edit box), then Escape might be the best shortcut, or possibly no shortcut at all (and then it is a good thing that there is no default shortcut).
The fact that the suitable shortcut depends on the situation also suggests that there should be no default shortcut, I think.
By the way, don't forget to make the TButtonedEdit DoubleBuffered, for otherwise it will flicker way too much.