OPTIONS(9) OPTIONS(9)
NAME
options - 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 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. For a description
of kinds of values that can passed to the various options,
see types(9).
In the descriptions below, the 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 set to -foreground and there exists a widget .a.b.c, then
the command
may be used to specify the value black for the option in the
the widget .a.b.c.
-activebackground colour
Specifies background colour 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 dist
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of
the 3-D border drawn around active elements. See above
for definition of active elements. This option is typ-
ically only available in widgets displaying more than
one element at a time (e.g. menus but not buttons).
-activeforeground colour
Specifies foreground colour to use when drawing active
elements. See above for definition of active elements.
-actx
Returns the current x position of the widget relative
to the origin of its top-level window.
-acty
Returns the current y position of the widget relative
to the origin of its top-level window.
-actwidth
Returns the current allocated width of the widget.
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OPTIONS(9) OPTIONS(9)
-actheight
Returns the current allocated height of the widget.
-anchor val
Specifies how the information in a widget (e.g. text or
a bitmap) is to be displayed in the widget. Val 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 colour or -bg colour
Specifies the normal background colour to use when dis-
playing the widget.
-bitmap bitmap
Specifies a bitmap to display in the widget. 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 usu-
ally override bitmap.
-borderwidth dist or -bd dist
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.
-font font
Specifies the font to use when drawing text inside the
widget.
-foreground colour or -fg colour
Specifies the normal foreground colour to use when dis-
playing the widget.
-image image
Specifies an image to display in the widget, which must
have been created with the image create command. Typi-
cally, if the image option is specified then it over-
rides 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.
-jump boolean
For widgets with a slider that can be dragged to adjust
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OPTIONS(9) OPTIONS(9)
a value, such as scrollbars, this option determines
when notifications are made about changes in the value.
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 val
When there are multiple lines of text displayed in a
widget, this option determines how the lines line up
with each other. Val 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 orientation
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.
Orientation must be either horizontal or vertical.
-padx dist
Specifies a non-negative value indicating how much
extra space to request for the widget in the X-
direction. 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 dis-
plays 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 dist
Specifies a non-negative value indicating how much
extra space to request for the widget in the Y-
direction. 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 man-
ager 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 val
Specifies the 3-D effect desired for the widget.
Acceptable values for val are raised, sunken, flat,
ridge, and groove. The value indicates how the
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OPTIONS(9) OPTIONS(9)
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.
-selectbackground colour
Specifies the background colour to use when displaying
selected items.
-selectborderwidth dist
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of
the 3-D border to draw around selected items.
-selectforeground colour
Specifies the foreground colour to use when displaying
selected items.
-text val
Specifies a string, val, 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.
-underline integer
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 but-
tons 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 command
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 con-
tents), the widget will generate a Tk command by con-
catenating command and two numbers. Each of the num-
bers 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 Tk interpreter for execution. Typically
the -xscrollcommand option consists of the path name of
a scrollbar widget followed by ``set'',e.g.
``.x.scrollbarset'': this will cause the scrollbar to
be updated whenever the view in the window changes. If
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OPTIONS(9) OPTIONS(9)
this option is not specified, then no command will be
executed.
-yscrollcommand command
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.
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