Defining and handling hot keys is very easy:
Set your form's "KeyPreview" property to "True."
KeyPreview := True;
Define your form's "KeyDown" event. For example, following code will catch any CTRL+F1 [hot] key presses:
procedure TForm1.FormKeyDown(
Sender: TObject; var Key: Word;
Shift: TShiftState );
begin
if( (ssCtrl in Shift) and
(Key = VK_F1) )then
begin
// do your thing here...
MessageBox( Handle,
'F1 pressed!',
'Hot Key',
MB_OK );
end;
end;