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menu, tk_menuSetFocus - Create and manipulate 'menu' widgets and menubars
Contents
Bugs
At present it is not possible to use the option database to specify values for the options to individual
entries.
Clones
When a menu is set as a menubar for a toplevel window, or when a menu is torn off, a clone of the menu is
made. This clone is a menu widget in its own right, but it is a child of the original. Changes in the
configuration of the original are reflected in the clone. Additionally, any cascades that are pointed to
are also cloned so that menu traversal will work right. Clones are destroyed when either the tearoff or
menubar goes away, or when the original menu is destroyed.
Default Bindings
Tk automatically creates class bindings for menus that give them the following default behavior:
[1] When the mouse enters a menu, the entry underneath the mouse cursor activates; as the mouse moves
around the menu, the active entry changes to track the mouse.
[2] When the mouse leaves a menu all of the entries in the menu deactivate, except in the special case
where the mouse moves from a menu to a cascaded submenu.
[3] When a button is released over a menu, the active entry (if any) is invoked. The menu also
unposts unless it is a torn-off menu.
[4] The Space and Return keys invoke the active entry and unpost the menu.
[5] If any of the entries in a menu have letters underlined with the -underline option, then pressing
one of the underlined letters (or its upper-case or lower-case equivalent) invokes that entry and
unposts the menu.
[6] The Escape key aborts a menu selection in progress without invoking any entry. It also unposts
the menu unless it is a torn-off menu.
[7] The Up and Down keys activate the next higher or lower entry in the menu. When one end of the
menu is reached, the active entry wraps around to the other end.
[8] The Left key moves to the next menu to the left. If the current menu is a cascaded submenu, then
the submenu is unposted and the current menu entry becomes the cascade entry in the parent. If
the current menu is a top-level menu posted from a menubutton, then the current menubutton is
unposted and the next menubutton to the left is posted. Otherwise the key has no effect. The
left-right order of menubuttons is determined by their stacking order: Tk assumes that the lowest
menubutton (which by default is the first one created) is on the left.
[9] The Right key moves to the next menu to the right. If the current entry is a cascade entry, then
the submenu is posted and the current menu entry becomes the first entry in the submenu.
Otherwise, if the current menu was posted from a menubutton, then the current menubutton is
unposted and the next menubutton to the right is posted.
Disabled menu entries are non-responsive: they do not activate and they ignore mouse button presses and
releases.
Several of the bindings make use of the command tk_menuSetFocus. It saves the current focus and sets the
focus to its pathName argument, which is a menu widget.
The behavior of menus can be changed by defining new bindings for individual widgets or by redefining the
class bindings.
Introduction
The menu command creates a new top-level window (given by the pathName argument) and makes it into a menu
widget. That menu widget can either be used as a pop-up window or applied to a toplevel (with its -menu
option) to make it into the menubar for that toplevel. Additional options, described above, may be
specified on the command line or in the option database to configure aspects of the menu such as its
colors and font. The menu command returns its pathName argument. At the time this command is invoked,
there must not exist a window named pathName, but pathName's parent must exist.
A menu is a widget that displays a collection of one-line entries arranged in one or more columns. There
exist several different types of entries, each with different properties. Entries of different types may
be combined in a single menu. Menu entries are not the same as entry widgets. In fact, menu entries are
not even distinct widgets; the entire menu is one widget.
Menu entries are displayed with up to three separate fields. The main field is a label in the form of a
text string, a bitmap, or an image, controlled by the -label, -bitmap, and -image options for the entry.
If the -accelerator option is specified for an entry then a second textual field is displayed to the
right of the label. The accelerator typically describes a keystroke sequence that may be used in the
application to cause the same result as invoking the menu entry. This is a display option, it does not
actually set the corresponding binding (which can be achieved using the bind command). The third field
is an indicator. The indicator is present only for checkbutton or radiobutton entries. It indicates
whether the entry is selected or not, and is displayed to the left of the entry's string.
In normal use, an entry becomes active (displays itself differently) whenever the mouse pointer is over
the entry. If a mouse button is released over the entry then the entry is invoked. The effect of
invocation is different for each type of entry; these effects are described below in the sections on
individual entries.
Entries may be disabled, which causes their labels and accelerators to be displayed with dimmer colors.
The default menu bindings will not allow a disabled entry to be activated or invoked. Disabled entries
may be re-enabled, at which point it becomes possible to activate and invoke them again.
Whenever a menu's active entry is changed, a <<MenuSelect>> virtual event is send to the menu. The active
item can then be queried from the menu, and an action can be taken, such as setting context-sensitive
help text for the entry.
Keywords
menu, widget
Tk 4.1 menu(3tk)
Name
menu, tk_menuSetFocus - Create and manipulate 'menu' widgets and menubars
See Also
bind(3tk), menubutton(3tk), ttk::menubutton(3tk), toplevel(3tk)
Standard Options
-activebackground-borderwidth-foreground-activeborderwidth-cursor-relief-activeforeground-disabledforeground-takefocus-background-font-activerelief
See the options manual entry for details on the standard options.
Synopsis
menupathName ?options?
tk_menuSetFocuspathNameTypes Of Entries
COMMANDENTRIES
The most common kind of menu entry is a command entry, which behaves much like a button widget. When a
command entry is invoked, a Tcl command is executed. The Tcl command is specified with the -command
option.
SEPARATORENTRIES
A separator is an entry that is displayed as a horizontal dividing line. A separator may not be
activated or invoked, and it has no behavior other than its display appearance.
CHECKBUTTONENTRIES
A checkbutton menu entry behaves much like a checkbutton widget. When it is invoked it toggles back and
forth between the selected and deselected states. When the entry is selected, a particular value is
stored in a particular global variable (as determined by the -onvalue and -variable options for the
entry); when the entry is deselected another value (determined by the -offvalue option) is stored in the
global variable. An indicator box is displayed to the left of the label in a checkbutton entry. If the
entry is selected then the indicator's center is displayed in the color given by the -selectcolor option
for the entry; otherwise the indicator's center is displayed in the background color for the menu. If a
-command option is specified for a checkbutton entry, then its value is evaluated as a Tcl command each
time the entry is invoked; this happens after toggling the entry's selected state.
RADIOBUTTONENTRIES
A radiobutton menu entry behaves much like a radiobutton widget. Radiobutton entries are organized in
groups of which only one entry may be selected at a time. Whenever a particular entry becomes selected
it stores a particular value into a particular global variable (as determined by the -value and -variable
options for the entry). This action causes any previously-selected entry in the same group to deselect
itself. Once an entry has become selected, any change to the entry's associated variable will cause the
entry to deselect itself. Grouping of radiobutton entries is determined by their associated variables:
if two entries have the same associated variable then they are in the same group. An indicator diamond
is displayed to the left of the label in each radiobutton entry. If the entry is selected then the
indicator's center is displayed in the color given by the -selectcolor option for the entry; otherwise
the indicator's center is displayed in the background color for the menu. If a -command option is
specified for a radiobutton entry, then its value is evaluated as a Tcl command each time the entry is
invoked; this happens after selecting the entry.
CASCADEENTRIES
A cascade entry is one with an associated menu (determined by the -menu option). Cascade entries allow
the construction of cascading menus. The postcascade widget command can be used to post and unpost the
associated menu just next to of the cascade entry. The associated menu must be a child of the menu
containing the cascade entry (this is needed in order for menu traversal to work correctly).
A cascade entry posts its associated menu by invoking a Tcl command of the form
menupostxy
where menu is the path name of the associated menu, and x and y are the root-window coordinates of the
upper-right corner of the cascade entry. On Unix, the lower-level menu is unposted by executing a Tcl
command with the form
menuunpost
where menu is the name of the associated menu. On other platforms, the platform's native code takes care
of unposting the menu.
If a -command option is specified for a cascade entry then it is evaluated as a Tcl command whenever the
entry is invoked. This is not supported on Windows.
TEAR-OFFENTRIES
A tear-off entry appears at the top of the menu if enabled with the -tearoff option. It is not like
other menu entries in that it cannot be created with the add widget command and cannot be deleted with
the delete widget command. When a tear-off entry is created it appears as a dashed line at the top of
the menu. Under the default bindings, invoking the tear-off entry causes a torn-off copy to be made of
the menu and all of its submenus.
Widget Command
The menu command creates a new Tcl command whose name is pathName. This command may be used to invoke
various operations on the widget. It has the following general form:
pathNameoption ?arg...?
Option and the args determine the exact behavior of the command.
Many of the widget commands for a menu take as one argument an indicator of which entry of the menu to
operate on. These indicators are called indexes and may be specified in any of the following forms:
active Indicates the entry that is currently active. If no entry is active then this form is
equivalent to {}. This form may not be abbreviated.
end Indicates the bottommost entry in the menu. If there are no entries in the menu then this
form is equivalent to {}. This form may not be abbreviated.
last Same as end.
{} Indicates “no entry at all”; this is used most commonly with the activate option to
deactivate all the entries in the menu. In most cases the specification of {} causes nothing
to happen in the widget command.
@x,y Indicates the entry that covers the point in the menu's window specified by x and y (in pixel
coordinates). If no entry covers that point, then this form is equivalent to {}. If only a
single number is specified, it is treated as the y-coordinate.
number Specifies the entry numerically, where 0 corresponds to the top-most entry of the menu, 1 to
the entry below it, and so on.
id If the index does not satisfy one of the above forms then the menu is searched for an entry
with the specified id.
pattern If all of the above methods for finding an entry fail, this form is used. Pattern is
pattern-matched against the label of each entry in the menu, in order from the top down,
until a matching entry is found. The rules of stringmatch are used.
If the index could match more than one of the above forms, then the form earlier in the above list takes
precedence. Indexes support the same simple interpretation as for the command stringindex, with simple
integer index arithmetic and indexing relative to end.
The following widget commands are possible for menu widgets:
pathNameactivateindex
Change the state of the entry indicated by index to active and redisplay it using its active
colors. Any previously-active entry is deactivated. If index is specified as {}, or if the
specified entry is disabled, then the menu ends up with no active entry. Returns an empty string.
pathNameaddtype ?id? ?optionvalueoptionvalue...?
Add a new entry to the bottom of the menu. The new entry's type is given by type and must be one
of cascade, checkbutton, command, radiobutton, or separator, or a unique abbreviation of one of
the above. If the id argument is specified, it is used as the entry identifier; id must not
already exist in the menu. Otherwise, a new unique identifier is generated. If additional
arguments are present, they specify the options listed in the MENUENTRYOPTIONS section below.
The add widget command returns the id of the new entry.
pathNamecgetoption
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option. Option may have any of the
values accepted by the menu command.
pathNameclonenewPathname ?cloneType?
Makes a clone of the current menu named newPathName. This clone is a menu in its own right, but
any changes to the clone are propagated to the original menu and vice versa. cloneType can be
normal, menubar, or tearoff. Should not normally be called outside of the Tk library. See the
CLONES section for more information.
pathNameconfigure ?option? ?valueoptionvalue...?
Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no option is specified, returns a
list describing all of the available options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on
the format of this list). If option is specified with no value, then the command returns a list
describing the one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the
value returned if no option is specified). 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. Option may have any of the values accepted by the menu command.
pathNamedeleteindex1 ?index2?
Delete all of the menu entries between index1 and index2 inclusive. If index2 is omitted then it
defaults to index1. Attempts to delete a tear-off menu entry are ignored (instead, you should
change the -tearoff option to remove the tear-off entry).
pathNameentrycgetindexoption
Returns the current value of a configuration option for the entry given by index. Option may have
any of the names described in the MENUENTRYOPTIONS section below.
pathNameentryconfigureindex ?options...?
This command is similar to the configure command, except that it applies to the options for an
individual entry, whereas configure applies to the options for the menu as a whole. Options may
have any of the values described in the MENUENTRYOPTIONS section below. If options are
specified, options are modified as indicated in the command and the command returns an empty
string. If no options are specified, returns a list describing the current options for entry
index (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list).
pathNameidindex
Returns the id of the menu entry given by index. This is the identifier that was assigned to the
entry when it was created using the add or insert widget command. Returns an empty string for the
tear-off entry, or if index is equivalent to {}.
pathNameindexindex
Returns the numerical index corresponding to index, or {} if index was specified as {}.
pathNameinsertindextype ?id? ?optionvalueoptionvalue...?
Same as the add widget command except that it inserts the new entry just before the entry given by
index, instead of appending to the end of the menu. The type, id, option, and value arguments
have the same interpretation as for the add widget command. It is not possible to insert new menu
entries before the tear-off entry, if the menu has one. The insert widget command returns the id
of the new entry.
pathNameinvokeindex
Invoke the action of the menu entry. See the sections on the individual entries above for details
on what happens. If the menu entry is disabled then nothing happens. If the entry has a command
associated with it then the result of that command is returned as the result of the invoke widget
command. Otherwise the result is an empty string. Note: invoking a menu entry does not
automatically unpost the menu; the default bindings normally take care of this before invoking
the invoke widget command.
pathNamepostxy ?index?
Arrange for the menu to be displayed on the screen at the root-window coordinates given by x and
y. If an index is specified the menu will be located so that the entry with that index is
displayed at the point. These coordinates are adjusted if necessary to guarantee that the entire
menu is visible on the screen. This command normally returns an empty string. If the
-postcommand option has been specified, then its value is executed as a Tcl script before posting
the menu and the result of that script is returned as the result of the post widget command. If
an error returns while executing the command, then the error is returned without posting the menu.
pathNamepostcascadeindex
Posts the submenu associated with the cascade entry given by index, and unposts any previously
posted submenu. If index does not correspond to a cascade entry, or if pathName is not posted,
the command has no effect except to unpost any currently posted submenu.
pathNametypeindex
Returns the type of the menu entry given by index. This is the type argument passed to the add or
insert widget command when the entry was created, such as command or separator, or tearoff for a
tear-off entry.
pathNameunpost
Unmap the window so that it is no longer displayed. If a lower-level cascaded menu is posted,
unpost that menu. Returns an empty string. This subcommand does not work on Windows and the
Macintosh, as those platforms have their own way of unposting menus.
pathNamexpositionindex
Returns a decimal string giving the x-coordinate within the menu window of the leftmost pixel in
the entry specified by index.
pathNameypositionindex
Returns a decimal string giving the y-coordinate within the menu window of the topmost pixel in
the entry specified by index.
Widget-Specific Options
Command-Line Name:-postcommand
Database Name: postCommand
Database Class: Command
If this option is specified then it provides a Tcl command to execute each time the menu is
posted. The command is invoked by the post widget command before posting the menu. Note that in
Tk 8.0 on Macintosh and Windows, all post-commands in a system of menus are executed before any of
those menus are posted. This is due to the limitations in the individual platforms' menu
managers.
Command-Line Name:-selectcolor
Database Name: selectColor
Database Class: Background
For menu entries that are check buttons or radio buttons, this option specifies the color to
display in the indicator when the check button or radio button is selected.
Command-Line Name:-tearoff
Database Name: tearOff
Database Class: TearOff
This option must have a proper boolean value (default is false), which specifies whether or not
the menu should include a tear-off entry at the top. If so, it will exist as entry 0 of the menu
and the other entries will number starting at 1. The default menu bindings arrange for the menu
to be torn off when the tear-off entry is invoked. This option is ignored under Aqua/macOS, where
menus cannot be torn off.
Command-Line Name:-tearoffcommand
Database Name: tearOffCommand
Database Class: TearOffCommand
If this option has a non-empty value, then it specifies a Tcl command to invoke whenever the menu
is torn off. The actual command will consist of the value of this option, followed by a space,
followed by the name of the menu window, followed by a space, followed by the name of the name of
the torn off menu window. For example, if the option's value is “ab” and menu .x.y is torn off
to create a new menu .x.tearoff1, then the command “ab.x.y.x.tearoff1” will be invoked. This
option is ignored under Aqua/macOS, where menus cannot be torn off.
Command-Line Name:-title
Database Name: title
Database Class: Title
The string will be used to title the window created when this menu is torn off. If the title is
NULL, then the window will have the title of the menubutton or the text of the cascade item from
which this menu was invoked.
Command-Line Name:-type
Database Name: type
Database Class: Type
This option can be one of menubar, tearoff, or normal, and is set when the menu is created. While
the string returned by the configuration database will change if this option is changed, this does
not affect the menu widget's behavior. This is used by the cloning mechanism and is not normally
set outside of the Tk library.
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