TextField() Prevent ctrl+a (select all) - actionscript-3

Question

How can I prevent CTRL+A from functioning with editable TextField()

Answer 1

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>

Answer 2

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).

Answer 3

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.