Provided by: tk9.0-doc_9.0.1-1_all 
NAME
ttk::widget - Standard options and commands supported by Tk themed widgets
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DESCRIPTION
This manual describes common widget options and commands.
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. 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. This is a write-only option:
setting it changes the widget state, but the state widget command does not affect the -state
option.
COMMANDS
pathName cget option
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option.
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.
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.
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.
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
SEE ALSO
ttk::intro(3tk), ttk::style(3tk)
KEYWORDS
state, configure, option
Tk 8.5 ttk::widget(3tk)