Table of Contents
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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 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, ``Name'' refers to the option's name in the option database (e.g. in .Xdefaults files). ``Class'' refers to the option's class value in the option database. ``Command-Line Switch'' refers to the switch used in widget-creation 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.
- Name:
- activeBackground
- Class:
- Foreground Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- activeBorderWidth
- Class:
- BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-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).
- Name:
- activeForeground
- Class:
- Background Command-Line Switch:-activeforeground
Specifies foreground color to use when drawing active elements. See above for definition of active elements.
- Name:
- anchor
- Class:
- Anchor Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- background
- Class:
- Background Command-Line Switch:-background or -bg
Specifies the normal background color to use when displaying the widget.
- Name:
- bitmap
- Class:
- Bitmap Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- borderWidth
- Class:
- BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-borderwidth or -bd
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.
- Name:
- cursor
- Class:
- Cursor Command-Line Switch:-cursor
Specifies the mouse cursor to be used for the widget. The value may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetCursor.
- Name:
- cursorBackground
- Class:
- Foreground Command-Line Switch:-cursorbackground
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). This option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by the insertBackground option.
- Name:
- cursorBorderWidth
- Class:
- BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-cursorborderwidth
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. This option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by the insertBorderWidth option.
- Name:
- cursorOffTime
- Class:
- OffTime Command-Line Switch:-cursorofftime
Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the number of milliseconds the 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. This option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by the insertOffTime option.
- Name:
- cursorOnTime
- Class:
- OnTime Command-Line Switch:-cursorontime
Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the number of milliseconds the cursor should remain ``on'' in each blink cycle. This option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by the insertOnTime option.
- Name:
- cursorWidth
- Class:
- CursorWidth Command-Line Switch:-cursorwidth
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 cursor (using the cursorBorderWidth option), the border will be drawn inside the width specified by the cursorWidth option. This option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by the insertWidth option.
- Name:
- disabledForeground
- Class:
- DisabledForeground Command-Line Switch:-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 fooreground color but they are dimmed by drawing them with a stippled fill pattern.
- Name:
- exportSelection
- Class:
- ExportSelection Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- font
- Class:
- Font Command-Line Switch:-font
Specifies the font to use when drawing text inside the widget.
- Name:
- foreground
- Class:
- Foreground Command-Line Switch:-foreground or -fg
Specifies the normal foreground color to use when displaying the widget.
- Name:
- geometry
- Class:
- Geometry Command-Line Switch:-geometry
Specifies the desired geometry for the widget's window, in the form widthxheight, where width is the desired width of the window and height is the desired height. The units for width and height depend on the particular widget. For widgets displaying text the units are usually the size of the characters in the font being displayed; for other widgets the units are usually pixels.
- Name:
- insertBackground
- Class:
- Foreground Command-Line Switch:-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).
- Name:
- insertBorderWidth
- Class:
- BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- insertOffTime
- Class:
- OffTime Command-Line Switch:-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 doesn't blink: it is on all the time.
- Name:
- insertOnTime
- Class:
- OnTime Command-Line Switch:-insertontime
Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the number of milliseconds the insertion cursor should remain ``on'' in each blink cycle.
- Name:
- insertWidth
- Class:
- InsertWidth Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- mask
- Class:
- Mask Command-Line Switch:-mask
Specifies a bitmap to use as the mask for the bitmap specified with the -bitmap option. Only the pixels that are set in the mask are displayed. If the picture format itself supports masks (like Xpm3), the mask is taken from the loaded picture.
- Name:
- orient
- Class:
- Orient Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- padX
- Class:
- Pad Command-Line Switch:-padx
Specifies a non-negative value indicating how much extra space to request for the widget in the Xdirection. 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.
- Name:
- padY
- Class:
- Pad Command-Line Switch:-pady
Specifies a non-negative value indicating how much extra space to request for the widget in the Ydirection. 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.
- Name:
- relief
- Class:
- Relief Command-Line Switch:-relief
Specifies the 3-D effect desired for the widget. Acceptable values are raised, sunken, flat, ridge, 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.
- Name:
- repeatDelay
- Class:
- RepeatDelay Command-Line Switch:-repeatdelay
Specifies the number of milliseconds a button or key must be held down before it begins to autorepeat. Used, for example, on the up- and downarrows in scrollbars.
- Name:
- repeatInterval
- Class:
- RepeatInterval Command-Line Switch:-repeatinterval
Used in conjunction with repeatDelay: once autorepeat begins, this option determines the number of milliseconds between auto-repeats.
- Name:
- scrollCommand
- Class:
- ScrollCommand Command-Line Switch:-scrollcommand
Specifies the prefix for a command used to communicate with scrollbar widgets. 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 four numbers. The four numbers are, in order: the total size of the widget's contents, in unspecified units (``unit'' is a widget-specific term; for widgets displaying text, the unit is a line); the maximum number of units that may be displayed at once in the widget's window, given its current size; the index of the top-most or left-most unit currently visible in the window (index 0 corresponds to the first unit); and the index of the bottom-most or right-most unit currently visible in the window. This command is then passed to the Tcl interpreter for execution. Typically the scrollCommand 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.
The scrollCommand option is used for widgets that support scrolling in only one direction. For widgets that support scrolling in both directions, this option is replaced with the xScrollCommand and yScrollCommand options.
- Name:
- selectBackground
- Class:
- Foreground Command-Line Switch:-selectbackground
Specifies the background color to use when displaying selected items.
- Name:
- selectBorderWidth
- Class:
- BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- selectForeground
- Class:
- Background Command-Line Switch:-selectforeground
Specifies the foreground color to use when displaying selected items.
- Name:
- setGrid
- Class:
- SetGrid Command-Line Switch:-setgrid
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget controls the resizing grid for its toplevel 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.
- Name:
- text
- Class:
- Text Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- textVariable
- Class:
- Variable Command-Line Switch:-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.
- Name:
- underline
- Class:
- Underline Command-Line Switch:-underline
Specifies the integer index of a character to underline in the widget. This option is typically used to indicate keyboard traversal characters in 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.
- Name:
- xScrollCommand
- Class:
- ScrollCommand Command-Line Switch:-xscrollcommand
Specifies the prefix for a command used to communicate with horizontal scrollbars. This option is treated in the same way as the scrollCommand option, except that it is used for horizontal scrollbars associated with widgets that support both horizontal and vertical scrolling. See the description of scrollCommand for complete details on how this option is used.
- Name:
- yScrollCommand
- Class:
- ScrollCommand Command-Line Switch:-yscrollcommand
Specifies the prefix for a command used to communicate with vertical scrollbars. This option is treated in the same way as the scrollCommand option, except that it is used for vertical scrollbars associated with widgets that support both horizontal and vertical scrolling. See the description of scrollCommand for complete details on how this option is used.
KEYWORDS
class, name, standard option, switch
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