man
s Options
options(n) Tk Built-In Commands options(n)
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NAME
options - Standard options supported by widgets
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DESCRIPTION
This manual entry describes the common configuration options supported
by widgets in the Tk toolkit. Every widget does not necessarily sup-
port 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 op-
tion 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 the widget
.a.b.c. Command-line switches may be abbreviated, as long as the ab-
breviation 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 vari-
able, 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] Spec-
ifies 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 ac-
tiveForeground] Specifies foreground color to use when drawing active
elements. See above for definition of active elements. [-anchor an-
chor] 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 infor-
mation such that its top-left corner is at the top-left corner of the
widget. [-background or -bg background] Specifies the normal back-
ground color to use when displaying the widget. [-bitmap bitmap] Spec-
ifies 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; the bitmap option may be reset
to an empty string to re-enable a text display. In widgets that sup-
port both bitmap and image options, image will usually override bitmap.
[-borderwidth or -bd borderWidth] Specifies a non-negative value indi-
cating 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 ac-
ceptable to Tk_GetPixels. [-cursor cursor] Specifies the mouse cursor
to be used for the widget. The value may have any of the forms accept-
able to Tk_GetCursor. [-disabledforeground disabledForeground] Speci-
fies 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 fore-
ground 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 selec-
tion retrieval requests when it has a selection. The default is usu-
ally for widgets to export selections. [-font font] Specifies the font
to use when drawing text inside the widget. [-foreground or -fg fore-
ground] 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. [-highlightthick-
ness highlightThickness] Specifies a non-negative value indicating the
width of the highlight rectangle to draw around the outside of the wid-
get 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 dis-
play 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; 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 insertBorder-
Width] 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 mil-
liseconds the insertion cursor should remain ``off'' in each blink cy-
cle. If this option is zero then the cursor doesn't blink: it is on
all the time. [-insertontime insertOnTime] Specifies a non-negative
integer value indicating the number of milliseconds the insertion cur-
sor should remain ``on'' in each blink cycle. [-insertwidth inser-
tWidth] Specifies a value indicating the total width of the insertion
cursor. The value may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPix-
els. 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 scroll-
bars, this option determines when notifications are made about changes
in the value. The option's value must be a boolean of the form ac-
cepted by Tcl_GetBoolean. If the value is false, updates are made con-
tinuously 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 hor-
izontal or vertical or an abbreviation of one of these. [-padx padX]
Specifies a non-negative value indicating how much extra space to re-
quest 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 wid-
get); 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 ig-
nore padding options. [-pady padY] Specifies a non-negative value in-
dicating how much extra space to request for the widget in the Y-direc-
tion. 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 but-
ton or key must be held down before it begins to auto-repeat. Used,
for example, on the up- and down-arrows in scrollbars. [-repeatinter-
val repeatInterval] Used in conjunction with repeatDelay: once auto-
repeat begins, this option determines the number of milliseconds be-
tween auto-repeats. [-selectbackground selectBackground] Specifies the
background color to use when displaying selected items. [-selectbor-
derwidth 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. [-selectfore-
ground 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 wid-
gets, 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 commu-
nicate with the window manager so that when the user interactively re-
sizes 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 de-
tails. [-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 eval-
uate 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 de-
fault decision described above. Note: this interpretation of the op-
tion 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 wid-
get; 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 de-
termined by other options, such as anchor or justify. [-trough-
color troughColor] Specifies the color to use for the rectangular
trough areas in widgets such as scrollbars and scales. [-underline un-
derline] Specifies the integer index of a character to underline in the
widget. This option is used by the default bindings to implement key-
board 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. [-xscrollcom-
mand xScrollCommand] Specifies the prefix for a command used to commu-
nicate with horizontal scrollbars. When the view in the widget's win-
dow changes (or whenever anything else occurs that could change the
display in a scrollbar, such as a change in the total size of the wid-
get's contents), the widget will generate a Tcl command by concatenat-
ing the scroll command and two numbers. Each of the numbers is a frac-
tion between 0 and 1, which indicates a position in the document. 0
indicates the beginning of the document, 1 indicates the end, .333 in-
dicates 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 infor-
mation 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 verti-
cal scrolling. See the description of xScrollCommand for details on
how this option is used.
KEYWORDS
class, name, standard option, switch
Tk 4.4 options(n)