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, “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.
"activeBackground" 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.
"activeBorderWidth" 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 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" Class="Background"
Specifies foreground color to use when drawing active elements.
See above for definition of active elements.
"anchor" 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.
"background" Class="Background"
Specifies the normal background color to use when displaying the
widget.
"bitmap" 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.
"borderWidth" 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 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" Class="Cursor"
Specifies the mouse cursor to be used for the widget.
The value may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetCursor.
"cursorBackground" 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).
\fIThis option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by
the insertBackground option.
"cursorBorderWidth" Class="BorderWidth"
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.
\fIThis option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by
the insertBorderWidth option.
"cursorOffTime" Class="OffTime"
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.
\fIThis option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by
the insertOffTime option.
"cursorOnTime" Class="OnTime"
Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the number of
milliseconds the cursor should remain “on” in each blink cycle.
\fIThis option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by
the insertOnTime option.
"cursorWidth" Class="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.
\fIThis option is obsolete and is gradually being replaced by
the insertWidth option.
"disabledForeground" 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 fooreground color but they are dimmed by drawing them
with a stippled fill pattern.
"exportSelection" 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.
"font" Class="Font"
Specifies the font to use when drawing text inside the widget.
"foreground" Class="Foreground"
Specifies the normal foreground color to use when displaying the widget.
"geometry" Class="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.
"insertBackground" 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).
"insertBorderWidth" Class="BorderWidth"
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" 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.
"insertOnTime" Class="OnTime"
Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the number of
milliseconds the insertion cursor should remain “on” in each blink cycle.
"insertWidth" 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.
"orient" 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.
"padX" 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.
"padY" 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.
"relief" Class="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" 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.
"repeatInterval" Class="RepeatInterval"
Used in conjunction with repeatDelay: once auto-repeat
begins, this option determines the number of milliseconds between
auto-repeats.
"scrollCommand" Class="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.
"selectBackground" Class="Foreground"
Specifies the background color to use when displaying selected
items.
"selectBorderWidth" 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.
"selectForeground" Class="Background"
Specifies the foreground color to use when displaying selected
items.
"setGrid" 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.
"text" Class="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" 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.
"underline" Class="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.
"xScrollCommand" Class="ScrollCommand"
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.
"yScrollCommand" Class="ScrollCommand"
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.
class, name, standard option, switch