options - Standard options supported by widgets
This manual entry describes the common configuration options
supported by widgets in the Tk toolkit. Every widget does not necessarily
support every option (see the manual entries for individual widgets for a
list of the standard options supported by that widget), but if a widget does
support an option with one of the names listed below, then the option has
exactly the effect described below.
In the descriptions below, “Command-Line Name”
refers to the switch used in class commands and configure widget
commands to set this value. For example, if an option's command-line switch
is -foreground and there exists a widget .a.b.c, then the
command
.a.b.c configure -foreground black
may be used to specify the value black for the option in the widget
.a.b.c. Command-line switches may be abbreviated, as long as the
abbreviation is unambiguous. “Database Name” refers to the
option's name in the option database (e.g. in .Xdefaults files).
“Database Class” refers to the option's class value in the
option database. [-activebackground
activeBackground] Specifies background color to use when drawing
active elements. An element (a widget or portion of a widget) is active if the
mouse cursor is positioned over the element and pressing a mouse button will
cause some action to occur. If strict Motif compliance has been requested by
setting the tk_strictMotif variable, this option will normally be
ignored; the normal background color will be used instead. For some elements
on Windows and Macintosh systems, the active color will only be used while
mouse button 1 is pressed over the element.
[-activeborderwidth activeBorderWidth]
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of the 3-D border drawn
around active elements. See above for definition of active elements. The value
may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. This option is
typically only available in widgets displaying more than one element at a time
(e.g. menus but not buttons). [-activeforeground
activeForeground] Specifies foreground color to use when drawing
active elements. See above for definition of active elements.
[-anchor anchor] Specifies how the
information in a widget (e.g. text or a bitmap) is to be displayed in the
widget. Must be one of the values n, ne, e, se,
s, sw, w, nw, or center. For example,
nw means display the information such that its top-left corner is at
the top-left corner of the widget. [-background or -bg
background] Specifies the normal background color to use when
displaying the widget. [-bitmap bitmap]
Specifies a bitmap to display in the widget, in any of the forms acceptable to
Tk_GetBitmap. The exact way in which the bitmap is displayed may be
affected by other options such as anchor or justify. Typically,
if this option is specified then it overrides other options that specify a
textual value to display in the widget but this is controlled by the
compound option; the bitmap option may be reset to an empty
string to re-enable a text display. In widgets that support both bitmap
and image options, image will usually override bitmap.
[-borderwidth or -bd borderWidth]
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of the 3-D border to draw
around the outside of the widget (if such a border is being drawn; the
relief option typically determines this). The value may also be used
when drawing 3-D effects in the interior of the widget. The value may have any
of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
[-cursor cursor] Specifies the mouse
cursor to be used for the widget. The value may have any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetCursor. In addition, if an empty string is
specified, it indicates that the widget should defer to its parent for cursor
specification. [-compound compound]
Specifies if the widget should display text and bitmaps/images at the same
time, and if so, where the bitmap/image should be placed relative to the text.
Must be one of the values none, bottom, top, left,
right, or center. For example, the (default) value none
specifies that the bitmap or image should (if defined) be displayed instead of
the text, the value left specifies that the bitmap or image should be
displayed to the left of the text, and the value center specifies that
the bitmap or image should be displayed on top of the text.
[-disabledforeground disabledForeground]
Specifies foreground color to use when drawing a disabled element. If the
option is specified as an empty string (which is typically the case on
monochrome displays), disabled elements are drawn with the normal foreground
color but they are dimmed by drawing them with a stippled fill pattern.
[-exportselection exportSelection]
Specifies whether or not a selection in the widget should also be the X
selection. The value may have any of the forms accepted by
Tcl_GetBoolean, such as true, false, 0, 1,
yes, or no. If the selection is exported, then selecting in the
widget deselects the current X selection, selecting outside the widget
deselects any widget selection, and the widget will respond to selection
retrieval requests when it has a selection. The default is usually for widgets
to export selections. [-font font]
Specifies the font to use when drawing text inside the widget. The value may
have any of the forms described in the font manual page under FONT
DESCRIPTION. [-foreground or -fg
foreground] Specifies the normal foreground color to use when
displaying the widget. [-highlightbackground
highlightBackground] Specifies the color to display in the
traversal highlight region when the widget does not have the input focus.
[-highlightcolor highlightColor]
Specifies the color to use for the traversal highlight rectangle that is drawn
around the widget when it has the input focus.
[-highlightthickness highlightThickness]
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of the highlight rectangle
to draw around the outside of the widget when it has the input focus. The
value may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. If the
value is zero, no focus highlight is drawn around the widget.
[-image image] Specifies an image to
display in the widget, which must have been created with the image
create command. Typically, if the image option is specified then it
overrides other options that specify a bitmap or textual value to display in
the widget, though this is controlled by the compound option; the
image option may be reset to an empty string to re-enable a bitmap or
text display. [-insertbackground
insertBackground] Specifies the color to use as background in
the area covered by the insertion cursor. This color will normally override
either the normal background for the widget (or the selection background if
the insertion cursor happens to fall in the selection).
[-insertborderwidth insertBorderWidth]
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of the 3-D border to draw
around the insertion cursor. The value may have any of the forms acceptable to
Tk_GetPixels. [-insertofftime
insertOffTime] Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating
the number of milliseconds the insertion cursor should remain
“off” in each blink cycle. If this option is zero then the
cursor does not blink: it is on all the time.
[-insertontime insertOnTime] Specifies a
non-negative integer value indicating the number of milliseconds the insertion
cursor should remain “on” in each blink cycle.
[-insertwidth insertWidth] Specifies a
value indicating the total width of the insertion cursor. The value may have
any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. If a border has been
specified for the insertion cursor (using the insertBorderWidth
option), the border will be drawn inside the width specified by the
insertWidth option. [-jump jump]
For widgets with a slider that can be dragged to adjust a value, such as
scrollbars, this option determines when notifications are made about changes
in the value. The option's value must be a boolean of the form accepted by
Tcl_GetBoolean. If the value is false, updates are made continuously as
the slider is dragged. If the value is true, updates are delayed until the
mouse button is released to end the drag; at that point a single notification
is made (the value “jumps” rather than changing smoothly).
[-justify justify] When there are
multiple lines of text displayed in a widget, this option determines how the
lines line up with each other. Must be one of left, center, or
right. Left means that the lines' left edges all line up,
center means that the lines' centers are aligned, and right
means that the lines' right edges line up. [-orient
orient] For widgets that can lay themselves out with either a
horizontal or vertical orientation, such as scrollbars, this option specifies
which orientation should be used. Must be either horizontal or
vertical or an abbreviation of one of these.
[-padx padX] Specifies a non-negative
value indicating how much extra space to request for the widget in the
X-direction. The value may have any of the forms acceptable to
Tk_GetPixels. When computing how large a window it needs, the widget
will add this amount to the width it would normally need (as determined by the
width of the things displayed in the widget); if the geometry manager can
satisfy this request, the widget will end up with extra internal space to the
left and/or right of what it displays inside. Most widgets only use this
option for padding text: if they are displaying a bitmap or image, then they
usually ignore padding options. [-pady
padY] Specifies a non-negative value indicating how much extra
space to request for the widget in the Y-direction. The value may have any of
the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. When computing how large a window
it needs, the widget will add this amount to the height it would normally need
(as determined by the height of the things displayed in the widget); if the
geometry manager can satisfy this request, the widget will end up with extra
internal space above and/or below what it displays inside. Most widgets only
use this option for padding text: if they are displaying a bitmap or image,
then they usually ignore padding options. [-relief
relief] Specifies the 3-D effect desired for the widget.
Acceptable values are raised, sunken, flat, ridge,
solid, and groove. The value indicates how the interior of the
widget should appear relative to its exterior; for example, raised
means the interior of the widget should appear to protrude from the screen,
relative to the exterior of the widget. [-repeatdelay
repeatDelay] Specifies the number of milliseconds a button or
key must be held down before it begins to auto-repeat. Used, for example, on
the up- and down-arrows in scrollbars.
[-repeatinterval repeatInterval] Used in
conjunction with repeatDelay: once auto-repeat begins, this option
determines the number of milliseconds between auto-repeats.
[-selectbackground selectBackground]
Specifies the background color to use when displaying selected items.
[-selectborderwidth selectBorderWidth]
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of the 3-D border to draw
around selected items. The value may have any of the forms acceptable to
Tk_GetPixels. [-selectforeground
selectForeground] Specifies the foreground color to use when
displaying selected items. [-setgrid
setGrid] Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this
widget controls the resizing grid for its top-level window. This option is
typically used in text widgets, where the information in the widget has a
natural size (the size of a character) and it makes sense for the window's
dimensions to be integral numbers of these units. These natural window sizes
form a grid. If the setGrid option is set to true then the widget will
communicate with the window manager so that when the user interactively
resizes the top-level window that contains the widget, the dimensions of the
window will be displayed to the user in grid units and the window size will be
constrained to integral numbers of grid units. See the section GRIDDED
GEOMETRY MANAGEMENT in the wm manual entry for more details.
[-takefocus takeFocus] Determines
whether the window accepts the focus during keyboard traversal (e.g., Tab and
Shift-Tab). Before setting the focus to a window, the traversal scripts
consult the value of the takeFocus option. A value of 0 means
that the window should be skipped entirely during keyboard traversal. 1
means that the window should receive the input focus as long as it is viewable
(it and all of its ancestors are mapped). An empty value for the option means
that the traversal scripts make the decision about whether or not to focus on
the window: the current algorithm is to skip the window if it is disabled, if
it has no key bindings, or if it is not viewable. If the value has any other
form, then the traversal scripts take the value, append the name of the window
to it (with a separator space), and evaluate the resulting string as a Tcl
script. The script must return 0, 1, or an empty string: a
0 or 1 value specifies whether the window will receive the input
focus, and an empty string results in the default decision described above.
Note: this interpretation of the option is defined entirely by the Tcl scripts
that implement traversal: the widget implementations ignore the option
entirely, so you can change its meaning if you redefine the keyboard traversal
scripts. [-text text] Specifies a string
to be displayed inside the widget. The way in which the string is displayed
depends on the particular widget and may be determined by other options, such
as anchor or justify. [-textvariable
textVariable] Specifies the name of a variable. The value of the
variable is a text string to be displayed inside the widget; if the variable
value changes then the widget will automatically update itself to reflect the
new value. The way in which the string is displayed in the widget depends on
the particular widget and may be determined by other options, such as
anchor or justify. [-troughcolor
troughColor] Specifies the color to use for the rectangular
trough areas in widgets such as scrollbars and scales. This option is ignored
for scrollbars on Windows (native widget does not recognize this option).
[-underline underline] Specifies the
integer index of a character to underline in the widget. This option is used
by the default bindings to implement keyboard traversal for menu buttons and
menu entries. 0 corresponds to the first character of the text displayed in
the widget, 1 to the next character, and so on.
[-wraplength wrapLength] For widgets
that can perform word-wrapping, this option specifies the maximum line length.
Lines that would exceed this length are wrapped onto the next line, so that no
line is longer than the specified length. The value may be specified in any of
the standard forms for screen distances. If this value is less than or equal
to 0 then no wrapping is done: lines will break only at newline characters in
the text. [-xscrollcommand
xScrollCommand] Specifies the prefix for a command used to
communicate with horizontal scrollbars. When the view in the widget's window
changes (or whenever anything else occurs that could change the display in a
scrollbar, such as a change in the total size of the widget's contents), the
widget will generate a Tcl command by concatenating the scroll command and two
numbers. Each of the numbers is a fraction between 0 and 1, which indicates a
position in the document. 0 indicates the beginning of the document, 1
indicates the end, .333 indicates a position one third the way through the
document, and so on. The first fraction indicates the first information in the
document that is visible in the window, and the second fraction indicates the
information just after the last portion that is visible. The command is then
passed to the Tcl interpreter for execution. Typically the
xScrollCommand option consists of the path name of a scrollbar widget
followed by “set”, e.g. “.x.scrollbar set”: this
will cause the scrollbar to be updated whenever the view in the window
changes. If this option is not specified, then no command will be executed.
[-yscrollcommand yScrollCommand]
Specifies the prefix for a command used to communicate with vertical
scrollbars. This option is treated in the same way as the
xScrollCommand option, except that it is used for vertical scrollbars
and is provided by widgets that support vertical scrolling. See the
description of xScrollCommand for details on how this option is used.
class, name, standard option, switch