options(n) Tk (4.4) 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 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
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.
Command-Line Name:-activebackground
Database Name: activeBackground
Database Class: Foreground
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.
Command-Line Name:-activeborderwidth
Database Name: activeBorderWidth
Database Class: BorderWidth
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
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
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).
Command-Line Name:-activeforeground
Database Name: activeForeground
Database Class: Background
Specifies foreground color to use when drawing active
elements. See above for definition of active elements.
Command-Line Name:-anchor
Database Name: anchor
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-background or -bg
Database Name: background
Database Class: Background
Specifies the normal background color to use when
displaying the widget.
Command-Line Name:-bitmap
Database Name: bitmap
Database Class: 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;
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.
Command-Line Name:-borderwidth or -bd
Database Name: borderWidth
Database Class: 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
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
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.
Command-Line Name:-cursor
Database Name: cursor
Database Class: Cursor
Specifies the mouse cursor to be used for the widget.
The value may have any of the forms acceptable to
Tk_GetCursor.
Command-Line Name:-disabledforeground
Database Name: disabledForeground
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-exportselection
Database Name: exportSelection
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-font
Database Name: font
Database Class: Font
Specifies the font to use when drawing text inside the
widget.
Command-Line Name:-foreground or -fg
Database Name: foreground
Database Class: Foreground
Specifies the normal foreground color to use when
displaying the widget.
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
Command-Line Name:-highlightbackground
Database Name: highlightBackground
Database Class: HighlightBackground
Specifies the color to display in the traversal
highlight region when the widget does not have the
input focus.
Command-Line Name:-highlightcolor
Database Name: highlightColor
Database Class: HighlightColor
Specifies the color to use for the traversal highlight
rectangle that is drawn around the widget when it has
the input focus.
Command-Line Name:-highlightthickness
Database Name: highlightThickness
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-image
Database Name: image
Database Class: 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; the image
option may be reset to an empty string to re-enable a
bitmap or text display.
Command-Line Name:-insertbackground
Database Name: insertBackground
Database Class: Foreground
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).
Command-Line Name:-insertborderwidth
Database Name: insertBorderWidth
Database Class: BorderWidth
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
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.
Command-Line Name:-insertofftime
Database Name: insertOffTime
Database Class: OffTime
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 doesn't blink: it is on all the
time.
Command-Line Name:-insertontime
Database Name: insertOnTime
Database Class: OnTime
Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the
number of milliseconds the insertion cursor should
remain ``on'' in each blink cycle.
Command-Line Name:-insertwidth
Database Name: insertWidth
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-jump
Database Name: jump
Database Class: 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).
Command-Line Name:-justify
Database Name: justify
Database Class: Justify
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
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.
Command-Line Name:-orient
Database Name: orient
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-padx
Database Name: padX
Database Class: Pad
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.
Command-Line Name:-pady
Database Name: padY
Database Class: Pad
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.
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
Command-Line Name:-relief
Database Name: relief
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-repeatdelay
Database Name: repeatDelay
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-repeatinterval
Database Name: repeatInterval
Database Class: RepeatInterval
Used in conjunction with repeatDelay: once auto-repeat
begins, this option determines the number of
milliseconds between auto-repeats.
Command-Line Name:-selectbackground
Database Name: selectBackground
Database Class: Foreground
Specifies the background color to use when displaying
selected items.
Command-Line Name:-selectborderwidth
Database Name: selectBorderWidth
Database Class: BorderWidth
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.
Command-Line Name:-selectforeground
Database Name: selectForeground
Database Class: Background
Specifies the foreground color to use when displaying
selected items.
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
Command-Line Name:-setgrid
Database Name: setGrid
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-takefocus
Database Name: takeFocus
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-text
Database Name: text
Database Class: Text
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
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.
Command-Line Name:-textvariable
Database Name: textVariable
Database Class: Variable
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.
Command-Line Name:-troughcolor
Database Name: troughColor
Database Class: Background
Specifies the color to use for the rectangular trough
areas in widgets such as scrollbars and scales.
Command-Line Name:-underline
Database Name: underline
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-wraplength
Database Name: wrapLength
Database Class: 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.
Command-Line Name:-xscrollcommand
Database Name: xScrollCommand
Database Class: ScrollCommand
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options(n) Tk (4.4) options(n)
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.
Command-Line Name:-yscrollcommand
Database Name: yScrollCommand
Database Class: ScrollCommand
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.
KEYWORDS
class, name, standard option, switch
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