options(3Tk)
options - Standard options supported by widgets
As shipped in IRIX 6.5.30. Unchanged since IRIX 6.5.
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. 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. Name: activeBackground Class: Foreground Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: activeBorderWidth Class: BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-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). Name: activeForeground Class: Background Command-Line Switch:-activeforeground Specifies foreground color to use when drawing active elements. See above for definition of active elements. Name: anchor Class: Anchor Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: background Class: Background Command-Line Switch:-background or -bg Specifies the normal background color to use when displaying the widget. Name: bitmap Class: Bitmap Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: borderWidth Class: BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-borderwidth or -bd 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. Name: cursor Class: Cursor Command-Line Switch:-cursor Specifies the mouse cursor to be used for the widget. The value may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetCursor. Name: disabledForeground Class: DisabledForeground Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: exportSelection Class: ExportSelection Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: font Class: Font Command-Line Switch:-font Specifies the font to use when drawing text inside the widget. Name: foreground Class: Foreground Command-Line Switch:-foreground or -fg Specifies the normal foreground color to use when displaying the widget. Name: geometry Class: Geometry Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: highlightBackground | Class: HighlightBackground | Command-Line Switch:-highlightbackground | Specifies the color to display in the traversal highlight region | when the widget does not have the input focus. Name: highlightColor | Class: HighlightColor | Command-Line Switch:-highlightcolor | Specifies the color to use for the traversal highlight rectangle | that is drawn around the widget when it has the input focus. Name: highlightThickness | Class: HighlightThickness | Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: image | Class: Image | Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: insertBackground Class: Foreground Command-Line Switch:-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). Name: insertBorderWidth Class: BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: insertOffTime Class: OffTime Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: insertOnTime Class: OnTime Command-Line Switch:-insertontime Specifies a non-negative integer value indicating the number of milliseconds the insertion cursor should remain ``on'' in each blink cycle. Name: insertWidth Class: InsertWidth Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: jump | Class: Jump | Command-Line Switch:-jump | For widgets with a slider that can be dragged to adjust a value, | such as scrollbars and scales, 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). Name: justify | Class: Justify | Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: orient Class: Orient Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: padX Class: Pad Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: padY Class: Pad Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: relief Class: Relief Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: repeatDelay Class: RepeatDelay Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: repeatInterval Class: RepeatInterval Command-Line Switch:-repeatinterval Used in conjunction with repeatDelay: once auto-repeat begins, this option determines the number of milliseconds between auto-repeats. Name: selectBackground Class: Foreground Command-Line Switch:-selectbackground Specifies the background color to use when displaying selected items. Name: selectBorderWidth Class: BorderWidth Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: selectForeground Class: Background Command-Line Switch:-selectforeground Specifies the foreground color to use when displaying selected items. Name: setGrid Class: SetGrid Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: takeFocus Class: TakeFocus Command-Line Switch:-takefocus Provides information used when moving the focus from window to window via keyboard traversal (e.g., Tab and Shift-Tab). Before setting the focus to a window, the traversal scripts first check whether the window is viewable (it and all its ancestors are mapped); if not, the window is skipped. Next, the scripts consult the value of the takeFocus option. A value of 0 means that this window should be skipped entirely during keyboard traversal. 1 means that the this window should always receive the input focus. An empty value 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 or if it has no key bindings. 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; this value is used just as if the option had that value in the first place. 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. Name: text Class: Text Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: textVariable Class: Variable Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: troughColor | Class: Background | Command-Line Switch:-troughcolor | Specifies the color to use for the rectangular trough areas in | widgets such as scrollbars and scales. Name: underline Class: Underline Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: wrapLength | Class: WrapLength | Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: xScrollCommand Class: ScrollCommand Command-Line Switch:-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. Name: yScrollCommand Class: ScrollCommand Command-Line Switch:-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. KEYWORDS class, name, standard option, switch