From the last few days I was searching for adding shortcut keys to WPF menu items. I didn’t see any direct method over there in Visual Studio. But after some googling I found some ways.

1. Using access keys, like ALT+key – This is like the old Hot key implementation, using &, but & will not work in WPF instead of this we need to use “_”
   <MenuItem Header="_Open" />
   But these way you can use ALT+ key as the shortcut key
2. Using code, like for displaying the shortcut key in the Menu item you can use “InputGestureText”e; property of menu item and using the code, need to capture the key press. I don’t know is it possible or not, I wasn’t checked this method, but the shortcut will appear on the menu
   <MenuItem Header="_Open" InputGestureText="Ctrl+O" />
3. The final way is using CommandBindings. I found this way is better compare to the previous methods, and it is an easy way.
   1. In the markup create the command Bindings using Command Collections.
      <CommandBinding Command="ApplicationCommands.Open" CanExecute="CommandCanExecute" Executed="CommandExecuted" />
<CommandBinding Command="ApplicationCommands.Close" CanExecute="CommandCanExecute" Executed="CommandExecuted" />
   2. In the code implement the event Handlers.
      Sub CommandExecuted(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As ExecutedRoutedEventArgs)
'Add the commands to be executed.
If e.Command.Equals(ApplicationCommands.Open) Then
MessageBox.Show("Open Menu item clicked")
ElseIf e.Command.Equals(ApplicationCommands.Close) Then
MessageBox.Show("Close menu item clicked")
End If
End Sub
Sub CommandCanExecute(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As CanExecuteRoutedEventArgs)
e.CanExecute = True 'I am always returning true, based on this the menu item will enabled / disabled
End Sub

   3. Assign the Commands to the Command property of our menu items. <MenuItem Command="ApplicationCommands.Open" >
<Separator />
<MenuItem Command="ApplicationCommands.Close" />

Compile it run it. You will see “Ctrl + O” added to the right side Open menu item.

You can see Ctrl + O added into the Open Menu item(Screenshot)