event.initMouseEvent

ctrlKey - whether or not control key was depressed during the Event. Sets the value of event.ctrlKey.

altKey - whether or not alt key was depressed during the Event. Sets the value of event.altKey.

shiftKey - whether or not shift key was depressed during the Event. Sets the value of event.shiftKey.

metaKey - whether or not meta key was depressed during the Event. Sets the value of event.metaKey.

If this method is used to initialize the mouse event prior to it being dispatched to a DOM object, how do we know if any of the above keys have been pressed, because the event has not yet been dispatched yet? Jabez

Manually created KeyEvents do not represent actual key presses, it's just that the event listeners will behave as if a key with the specified modifiers was pressed. --Nickolay 00:13, 31 July 2006 (PDT)