options(n) Tk Built-In Commands options(n)
NAME
options - Standard options supported by widgets
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
option has exactly the effect described below.
In the descriptions below, 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. refers to the option's name in the option database
(e.g. in .Xdefaults files). refers to the option's class value in the
option database. 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.
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of the 3-D border
drawn around active elements. See above for definition of active ele-
ments. 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). Specifies fore-
ground color to use when drawing active elements. See above for defi-
nition of active elements. 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. Specifies the normal background color
to use when displaying the widget. 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. 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_Get-
Pixels. Specifies the mouse cursor to be used for the widget. The
value may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetCursor. In addi-
tion, if an empty string is specified, it indicates that the widget
should defer to its parent for cursor specification. 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. 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), dis-
abled elements are drawn with the normal foreground color but they are
dimmed by drawing them with a stippled fill pattern. 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. 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 DESCRIP-
TION. Specifies the normal foreground color to use when displaying the
widget. Specifies the color to display in the traversal highlight
region when the widget does not have the input focus. Specifies the
color to use for the traversal highlight rectangle that is drawn around
the widget when it has the input focus. Specifies a non-negative value
indicating the width of the highlight rectangle to draw around the out-
side 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. 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, 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. 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). 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. Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the
number of milliseconds the insertion cursor should remain in each blink
cycle. If this option is zero then the cursor does not blink: it is
on all the time. Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the
number of milliseconds the insertion cursor should remain in each blink
cycle. 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. 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_Get-
Boolean. 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 noti-
fication is made (the value rather than changing smoothly). When there
are multiple lines of text displayed in a widget, this option deter-
mines how the lines line up with each other. Must be one of left, cen-
ter, or right. Left means that the lines' left edges all line up, cen-
ter means that the lines' centers are aligned, and right means that the
lines' right edges line up. 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. 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 accept-
able 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. 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 dis-
played 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 usu-
ally ignore padding options. 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 inte-
rior of the widget should appear to protrude from the screen, relative
to the exterior of the widget. 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. Used in con-
junction with repeatDelay: once auto-repeat begins, this option deter-
mines the number of milliseconds between auto-repeats. Specifies the
background color to use when displaying selected items. 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. Specifies the foreground color to use when displaying
selected items. 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 con-
tains 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. 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.
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. 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 par-
ticular widget and may be determined by other options, such as anchor
or justify. 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). 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. 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 stan-
dard 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 char-
acters in the text. 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
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 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 e.g. 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. 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 ver-
tical scrollbars and is provided by widgets that support vertical
scrolling. See the description of xScrollCommand for details on how
this option is used.
SEE ALSO
colors(n), cursors(n), font(n)
KEYWORDS
class, name, standard option, switch
Tk 4.4 options(n)
options 8.5.4 - Generated Sun Aug 24 09:15:10 CDT 2008