How to make NSTextField accept tab, return and enter keys.

Q:  How do I make NSTextField accept the tab key, as well as return and enter keys as line-breaks?

A: It's worth noting that NSTextField supports new line breaks by using Option-Return or Option-Enter. But under most circumstances the easiest solution would be to use NSTextView instead.

So you need to ask yourself "why" you want to keep using NSTextField. Here is a list of possible reasons:

• It may not be obvious to users that Option-Return and Option-Enter are available to them.

• You want to keep using the conveniences and features of NSTextField's super class NSControl.

• NSTextField is light-weight compared to NSTextView.

• NSTextField supports horizontal scrolling, by default NSTextView does not and requires extra work to avoid text wrapping.

• You want the flexibility of using the target/action scheme, often configured in InterfaceBuilder.

• You may simply want to just allow the tab key and are not concerned with line-breaks.

- (BOOL)control:(NSControl*)control textView:(NSTextView*)textView doCommandBySelector:(SEL)commandSelector

{

    BOOL result = NO;

    if (commandSelector == @selector(insertNewline:))

    {

        // new line action:

        // always insert a line-break character and don’t cause the receiver to end editing

        [textView insertNewlineIgnoringFieldEditor:self];

        result = YES;

    }

    else if (commandSelector == @selector(insertTab:))

    {

        // tab action:

        // always insert a tab character and don’t cause the receiver to end editing

        [textView insertTabIgnoringFieldEditor:self];

        result = YES;

    }

    return result;

}

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