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, “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 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). [-activefore‐
ground 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 val‐
ues n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, nw, or center. For example, nw means dis‐
play 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. [-bit‐
map 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 con‐
trolled 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. [-bor‐
derwidth 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 deter‐
mines 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 cur‐
sor 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 speci‐
fied, it indicates that the widget should defer to its parent for cur‐
sor 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 dis‐
played 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. [-highlightback‐
ground highlightBackground] Specifies the color to display in the tra‐
versal 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] Speci‐
fies a non-negative value indicating the width of the highlight rectan‐
gle 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 con‐
trolled by the compound option; the image option may be reset to an
empty string to re-enable a bitmap or text display. [-insertback‐
ground 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_GetPix‐
els. [-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 cur‐
sor does not blink: it is on all the time. [-insertontime insertOn‐
Time] 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 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. [-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 accept‐
able 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 dis‐
playing 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 rela‐
tive to its exterior; for example, raised means the interior of the
widget should appear to protrude from the screen, relative to the exte‐
rior 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 scroll‐
bars. [-repeatinterval repeatInterval] Used in conjunction with
repeatDelay: once auto-repeat begins, this option determines the num‐
ber of milliseconds between auto-repeats. [-selectbackground select‐
Background] 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 set‐
Grid] 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 natu‐
ral 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 traver‐
sal scripts consult the value of the takeFocus option. A value of 0
means that the window should be skipped entirely during keyboard tra‐
versal. 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 traver‐
sal 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 speci‐
fies 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 global 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. [-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 inte‐
ger 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 posi‐
tion 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 infor‐
mation 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 execu‐
tion. 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 exe‐
cuted. [-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.
SEE ALSO
colors, cursors, font
KEYWORDS
class, name, standard option, switch
Tk 4.4 options(n)