options(n) Tk Built-In Commands options(n)______________________________________________________________________________NAMEoptions - 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 sup‐
port 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 vari‐
able, 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. [-activeborderwidth activeBorderWidth] Spec‐
ifies 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). [-activefore‐
ground 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 val‐
ues n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, nw, or center. For example, nw means dis‐
play 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. [-bit‐
map 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] Speci‐
fies the mouse cursor to be used for the widget. The value may have
any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetCursor. [-disabledforeground dis‐
abledForeground] Specifies foreground color to use when drawing a dis‐
abled 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] Spec‐
ifies 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_Get‐
Boolean, such as true, false, 0, 1, yes, or no. If the selection is
exported, then selecting in the widget deselects the current X selec‐
tion, 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. The value may have any of the forms accepted by Tk_GetFont.
[-foreground or -fg foreground] Specifies the normal foreground color
to use when displaying the widget. [-highlightbackground highlight‐
Background] Specifies the color to display in the traversal highlight
region when the widget does not have the input focus. [-highlight‐
color 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-nega‐
tive 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. [-inser‐
tontime 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 indi‐
cating the total width of the insertion cursor. The value may have any
of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. If a border has been speci‐
fied 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 notifi‐
cations 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 wid‐
gets that can lay themselves out with either a horizontal or vertical
orientation, such as scrollbars, this option specifies which orienta‐
tion 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_Get‐
Pixels. 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 man‐
ager can satisfy this request, the widget will end up with extra inter‐
nal 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 dis‐
played 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 usu‐
ally ignore padding options. [-relief 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. [-repeatdelay repeat‐
Delay] 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 selectBorder‐
Width] 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 con‐
tains 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] Deter‐
mines 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 win‐
dow 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 dis‐
played 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] Spec‐
ifies 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] Speci‐
fies the color to use for the rectangular trough areas in widgets such
as scrollbars and scales. This option is ignored for scrollbars on
Windows (native widget doesn't recognize this option). [-under‐
line underline] Specifies the integer index of a character to underline
in the widget. This option is used by the default bindings to imple‐
ment keyboard traversal for menu buttons and menu entries. 0 corre‐
sponds 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. [-xscrollcom‐
mand xScrollCommand] Specifies the prefix for a command used to commu‐
nicate with horizontal scrollbars. When the view in the widget's win‐
dow changes (or whenever anything else occurs that could change the
display in a scrollbar, such as a change in the total size of the wid‐
get's contents), the widget will generate a Tcl command by concatenat‐
ing the scroll command and two numbers. Each of the numbers is a frac‐
tion 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 infor‐
mation 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 verti‐
cal scrolling. See the description of xScrollCommand for details on
how this option is used.
SEE ALSO
colors, cursors, font
KEYWORDS
class, name, standard option, switch
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│Availability │ SUNWTk │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ External │
└────────────────────┴─────────────────┘
NOTES
Source for Tk is available in the SUNWTkS package.
Tk 4.4 options(n)
