ttk::widget(3tk)

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version 9.0.4 · 4 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ NAME ✨

ttk::widget — Standard options and commands supported by Tk themed widgets 💖

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the ttk::widget(3tk) page — the Tk Themed Widget one. This manual describes common widget options and commands. no cap.

🎀 STANDARD OPTIONS 🎀

The following options are supported by all Tk themed widgets:

  • Command-Line Name: -class Database Name: undefined Database Class: undefined Specifies the window class. The class is used when querying the option database for the window's other options, to determine the default bindtags for the window, and to select the widget's default layout and style.
🚨 bestie, this is a read-only option: it may only be specified when the window is created, and may not be changed with the configure widget command.
  • Command-Line Name: -cursor Database Name: cursor Database Class: Cursor Specifies the mouse cursor to be used for the widget. See Tk_GetCursor and cursors(3tk) in the Tk reference manual for the legal values. If set to the empty string (the default), the cursor is inherited from the parent widget.
  • Command-Line Name: -takefocus Database Name: takeFocus Database Class: TakeFocus Determines whether the window accepts the focus during keyboard traversal. Either 0, 1, a command prefix (to which the widget path is appended, and which should return 0 or 1), or the empty string. See options(3tk) in the Tk reference manual for the full description.
  • Command-Line Name: -style Database Name: style Database Class: Style May be used to specify a custom widget style.

🦋 SCROLLABLE WIDGET OPTIONS 🦋

The following options are supported by widgets that are controllable by a scrollbar. See scrollbar(3tk) for more information.

  • Command-Line Name: -xscrollcommand Database Name: xScrollCommand Database Class: ScrollCommand A command prefix, used to communicate with horizontal scrollbars. When the view in the widget's window changes, 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 indicating a position in the document; 0 indicates the beginning, and 1 indicates the end. The first fraction indicates the first information in the widget that is visible in the window, and the second fraction indicates the information just after the last portion that is visible. 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 set to the empty string (the default), then no command will be executed.
  • Command-Line Name: -yscrollcommand Database Name: yScrollCommand Database Class: ScrollCommand A command prefix, used to communicate with vertical scrollbars. See the description of -xscrollcommand above for details.

🌸 LABEL OPTIONS 🌸

The following options are supported by labels, buttons, and other button-like widgets:

  • Command-Line Name: -anchor Database Name: anchor Database Class: Anchor Specifies how the information in the widget is positioned relative to the inner margins. Legal values are n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, nw, and center. See also -justify (for widgets supporting this option).
  • Command-Line Name: -compound Database Name: compound Database Class: Compound Specifies how to display the image relative to the text, in the case both -text and -image are present. If set to the empty string (the default), the rules described in the "Elements" section of ttk::intro(3tk) explain which value is actually used. The other valid values are:
    • text — Display text only.
    • image — Display image only.
    • center — Display text centered on top of image.
    • top, bottom, left, right — Display image above, below, left of, or right of the text, respectively.
    • none — Display the image if present, otherwise the text.
  • Command-Line Name: -font Database Name: font Database Class: Font Font to use for the text displayed by the widget.
  • Command-Line Name: -foreground Database Name: textColor Database Class: TextColor The widget's foreground color. If unspecified, the theme default is used.
  • Command-Line Name: -image Database Name: image Database Class: Image Specifies an image to display. This is a list of 1 or more elements. The first element is the default image name. The rest of the list is a sequence of statespec / value pairs as per style map, specifying different images to use when the widget is in a particular state or combination of states. All images in the list should have the same size.
  • Command-Line Name: -justify Database Name: justify Database Class: Justify If there are multiple lines of text, specifies how the lines are laid out relative to one another. One of left, center, or right. See also -anchor (for widgets supporting this option).
  • Command-Line Name: -padding Database Name: padding Database Class: Padding Specifies the internal padding for the widget. The padding is a list of up to four length specifications left top right bottom. If fewer than four elements are specified, bottom defaults to top, right defaults to left, and top defaults to left. In other words, a list of three numbers specify the left, vertical, and right padding; a list of two numbers specify the horizontal and the vertical padding; a single number specifies the same padding all the way around the widget.
  • Command-Line Name: -text Database Name: text Database Class: Text Specifies a text string to be displayed inside the widget (unless overridden by -textvariable for the widgets supporting this option).
  • Command-Line Name: -textvariable Database Name: textVariable Database Class: Variable Specifies the name of a global variable whose value will be used in place of the -text resource.
  • Command-Line Name: -underline Database Name: underline Database Class: Underline If set, specifies the integer index (0-based) of a character to underline in the text string. end corresponds to the last character, end-1 to the before last character, and so on. The underlined character is used for mnemonic activation.
  • Command-Line Name: -width Database Name: width Database Class: Width If greater than zero, specifies how much space, in character widths, to allocate for the text label. If less than zero, specifies a minimum width. If zero or unspecified, the natural width of the text label is used. Note that some themes may specify a non-zero -width in the style.
  • Command-Line Name: -wraplength Database Name: wrapLength Database Class: WrapLength Specifies the maximum line length. The value may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. If this option is less than or equal to zero, then automatic wrapping is not performed; otherwise the text is split into lines such that no line is longer than the specified value.

💅 ENTRY OPTIONS 💅

The following options are supported by entry, spinbox and combobox:

  • Command-Line Name: -placeholder Database Name: placeHolder Database Class: PlaceHolder Specifies a help text string to display if no text is otherwise displayed, that is when the widget is empty. The placeholder text is displayed using the values of the -font, -justify and -placeholderforeground options.
  • Command-Line Name: -placeholderforeground Database Name: placeHolderForeground Database Class: PlaceHolderForeground Specifies the foreground color of the placeholder text.

👑 COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS 👑

This option is only available for themed widgets that have “corresponding” traditional Tk widgets.

  • Command-Line Name: -state Database Name: state Database Class: State May be set to normal or disabled to control the disabled state bit.
💀 bestie, this is a write-only option: setting it changes the widget state, but the state widget command does not affect the -state option.

💖 COMMANDS 💖

Bestie, this is the command menu — every method you can call on a ttk widget. ✨

  • pathName cget option — Hands you back whatever value option is currently set to. 💖
  • pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...? — Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the command modifies the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty string. If option is specified with no value, then the command returns a list describing the named option: the elements of the list are the option name, database name, database class, default value, and current value. If no option is specified, returns a list describing all of the available options for pathName. It's giving full configuration control, no cap. 🎀
  • pathName identify element x y — Returns the name of the element under the point given by x and y, or an empty string if the point does not lie within any element. x and y are pixel coordinates relative to the widget. Some widgets accept other identify subcommands described in these widgets documentation. 🔍
  • pathName instate statespec ?script? — Test the widget's state. If script is not specified, returns 1 if the widget state matches statespec and 0 otherwise. If script is specified, equivalent to:
if {[pathName instate stateSpec]} script

🫶

  • pathName state ?stateSpec? — Modify or inquire widget state. If stateSpec is present, sets the widget state: for each flag in stateSpec, sets the corresponding flag or clears it if prefixed by an exclamation point. Returns a new state spec indicating which flags were changed:
set changes [pathName state spec]
pathName state $changes

will restore pathName to the original state. If stateSpec is not specified, returns a list of the currently-enabled state flags. State glow-up, periodt. 💅

  • pathName style — Return the style used by the widget. 👑
  • pathName xview args — This command is used to query and change the horizontal position of the content in the widget's window. It can take any of the following forms:
    • pathName xview — Returns a list containing two elements. Each element is a real fraction between 0 and 1; together they describe the horizontal span that is visible in the window. For example, if the first element is .2 and the second element is .6, 20% of the widget's content is off-screen to the left, the middle 40% is visible in the window, and 40% of the content is off-screen to the right. These are the same values passed to scrollbars via the -xscrollcommand option. 🌈
    • pathName xview index — Adjusts the view in the window so that the content given by index is displayed at the left edge of the window. ⬅️
    • pathName xview moveto fraction — Adjusts the view in the window so that the character fraction of the way through the content appears at the left edge of the window. Fraction must be a fraction between 0 and 1. 🎚️
    • pathName xview scroll number what — This command shifts the view in the window left or right according to number and what. Number must be an integer or a float, but if it is a float then it is converted to an integer, rounded away from 0. What must be either pages or units. If what is pages then the view adjusts by number screenfuls. If number is negative then characters farther to the left become visible; if it is positive then characters farther to the right become visible. If what is units, the view adjusts left or right by number average-width characters on the display. 🌀
  • pathName yview args — This command is used to query and change the vertical position of the content in the widget's window. It can take any of the following forms:
    • pathName yview — Returns a list containing two elements. Each element is a real fraction between 0 and 1; together they describe the vertical span that is visible in the window. For example, if the first element is .2 and the second element is .6, 20% of the widget's content is off-screen to the top, the middle 40% is visible in the window, and 40% of the content is off-screen to the bottom. These are the same values passed to scrollbars via the -yscrollcommand option. 🌸
    • pathName yview index — Adjusts the view in the window so that the content given by index is displayed at the top edge of the window. ⬆️
    • pathName yview moveto fraction — Adjusts the view in the window so that the item fraction of the way through the content appears at the top edge of the window. Fraction must be a fraction between 0 and 1. 🎚️
    • pathName yview scroll number what — This command shifts the view in the window up or down according to number and what. Number must be an integer or a float, but if it is a float then it is converted to an integer, rounded away from 0. What must be either pages or units. If what is pages then the view adjusts by number screenfuls. If number is negative then items farther to the top become visible; if it is positive then items farther to the bottom become visible. If what is units, the view adjusts up or down by number average-width characters on the display. 🌀

🦋 WIDGET STATES 🦋

The widget state is a bitmap of independent state flags. Widget state flags include:

  • active — The mouse cursor is over the widget and pressing a mouse button will cause some action to occur. (aka “prelight” (Gnome), “hot” (Windows), “hover”). ✨
  • disabled — Widget is disabled under program control (aka “unavailable”, “inactive”). 🚫
  • focus — Widget has keyboard focus. 🎯
  • pressed — Widget is being pressed (aka “armed” in Motif). 👇
  • selected — “On”, “true”, or “current” for things like checkbuttons and radiobuttons. ✅
  • background — Windows and the Mac have a notion of an “active” or foreground window. The background state is set for widgets in a background window, and cleared for those in the foreground window. 🪟
  • readonly — Widget should not allow user modification. 🔒
  • alternate — A widget-specific alternate display format. For example, used for checkbuttons and radiobuttons in the “tristate” or “mixed” state, and for buttons with -default active. 🔀
  • invalid — The widget's value is invalid. (Potential uses: scale widget value out of bounds, entry widget value failed validation.) ❌
  • hover — The mouse cursor is within the widget. This is similar to the active state; it is used in some themes for widgets that provide distinct visual feedback for the active widget in addition to the active element within the widget. 🦋
  • user1-user6 — Freely usable for other purposes. 🧚

A state specification or stateSpec is a list of state names, optionally prefixed with an exclamation point (!) indicating that the bit is off. So !disabled is the iconic “turn it back on” move, iykyk. 💅

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

              set b [ttk::button .b]

              # Disable the widget:
              $b state disabled

              # Invoke the widget only if it is currently pressed and enabled:
              $b instate {pressed !disabled} { .b invoke }

              # Reenable widget:
              $b state !disabled

That little snippet is literally the whole vibe: check state, respect state, flip state. 🫶

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

ttk::intro(3tk), ttk::style(3tk)

💅 KEYWORDS 💅

state, configure, option

That's the Tk 8.5 edition of ttk::widget(3tk) — source/version said Tk 8.5, the page is ttk::widget(3tk), and the date? The footer didn't spill it, so we're keeping it mysterious. Stay configured, bestie. 💖✨

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