______________________________________________________________________________
options - Standard options supported by widgets _________________________________________________________________
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.
[-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
│ variable, this option will normally be
ignored; the normal background │ color will
be used instead.
[-activeborderwidth 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).
[-activeforeground 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 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.
[-background or -bg background] Specifies
the normal background color to use when displaying the
widget. [-bitmap 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.
[-borderwidth 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
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.
[-cursor cursor] Specifies the mouse
cursor to be used for the widget. The value may have any of
the forms acceptable to Tk_GetCursor.
[-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.
[-foreground or -fg foreground] Specifies
the normal foreground color to use when displaying the
widget. [-geometry 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.
[-highlightbackground highlightBackground]
Specifies the color to │ display in the
traversal 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]
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. [-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; the image option may be reset
to an empty │ string to re-enable a bitmap
or text display.
[-insertbackground 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_GetPixels.
[-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 cursor doesn’t blink: it is on
all the time.
[-insertontime insertOnTime] 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 │
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. [-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 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. [-relief 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.
[-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 scrollbars.
[-repeatinterval repeatInterval] Used in
│ conjunction with repeatDelay: once
auto-repeat begins, this option │
determines the number of milliseconds between auto-repeats.
│
[-selectbackground selectBackground]
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 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.
│
[-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 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.
[-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 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.
[-troughcolor troughColor] Specifies the
color to use for the │ rectangular trough
areas in widgets such as scrollbars and scales.
[-underline 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.
[-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
│ 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.
[-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.
class, name, standard option, switch