menubutton(1t) Tk Built-In Commands menubutton(1t)
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NAME
menubutton - Create and manipulate 'menubutton' pop-up menu indicator
widgets
SYNOPSIS
menubutton pathName ?options?
STANDARD OPTIONS
-activebackground -disabledforeground -padx
-activeforeground -font -pady
-anchor -foreground -relief
-background -highlightbackground -takefocus
-bitmap -highlightcolor -text
-borderwidth -highlightthickness -textvariable
-cursor -image -underline
-compound -justify -wraplength
See the options manual entry for details on the standard options.
WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
Command-Line Name:-direction
Database Name: direction
Database Class: Height
Specifies where the menu is going to be popup up. above tries to
pop the menu above the menubutton. below tries to pop the menu
below the menubutton. left tries to pop the menu to the left of
the menubutton. right tries to pop the menu to the right of the
menu button. flush pops the menu directly over the menubutton.
In the case of above or below, the direction will be reversed if
the menu would show offscreen.
Command-Line Name:-height
Database Name: height
Database Class: Height
Specifies a desired height for the menubutton. If an image or
bitmap is being displayed in the menubutton then the value is in
screen units (i.e. any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels);
for text it is in lines of text. If this option is not speci-
fied, the menubutton's desired height is computed from the size
of the image or bitmap or text being displayed in it.
Command-Line Name:-indicatoron
Database Name: indicatorOn
Database Class: IndicatorOn
The value must be a proper boolean value. If it is true then a
small indicator rectangle will be displayed on the right side of
the menubutton and the default menu bindings will treat this as
an option menubutton. If false then no indicator will be dis-
played.
Command-Line Name:-menu
Database Name: menu
Database Class: MenuName
Specifies the path name of the menu associated with this
menubutton. The menu must be a child of the menubutton.
Command-Line Name:-state
Database Name: state
Database Class: State
Specifies one of three states for the menubutton: normal,
active, or disabled. In normal state the menubutton is dis-
played using the foreground and background options. The active
state is typically used when the pointer is over the menubutton.
In active state the menubutton is displayed using the -active-
foreground and -activebackground options. Disabled state means
that the menubutton should be insensitive: the default bindings
will refuse to activate the widget and will ignore mouse button
presses. In this state the -disabledforeground and -background
options determine how the button is displayed.
Command-Line Name:-width
Database Name: width
Database Class: Width
Specifies a desired width for the menubutton. If an image or
bitmap is being displayed in the menubutton then the value is in
screen units (i.e. any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels);
for text it is in characters. If this option is not specified,
the menubutton's desired width is computed from the size of the
image or bitmap or text being displayed in it.
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INTRODUCTION
The menubutton command creates a new window (given by the pathName
argument) and makes it into a menubutton widget. Additional options,
described above, may be specified on the command line or in the option
database to configure aspects of the menubutton such as its colors,
font, text, and initial relief. The menubutton 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 menubutton is a widget that displays a textual string, bitmap, or
image and is associated with a menu widget. If text is displayed, it
must all be in a single font, but it can occupy multiple lines on the
screen (if it contains newlines or if wrapping occurs because of the
-wraplength option) and one of the characters may optionally be under-
lined using the -underline option. In normal usage, pressing mouse
button 1 over the menubutton causes the associated menu to be posted
just underneath the menubutton. If the mouse is moved over the menu
before releasing the mouse button, the button release causes the under-
lying menu entry to be invoked. When the button is released, the menu
is unposted.
Menubuttons are used to construct a tk_optionMenu, which is the pre-
ferred mechanism for allowing a user to select one item from a list on
Mac OS X.
Menubuttons were also typically organized into groups called menu bars
that allow scanning: if the mouse button is pressed over one menubutton
(causing it to post its menu) and the mouse is moved over another
menubutton in the same menu bar without releasing the mouse button,
then the menu of the first menubutton is unposted and the menu of the
new menubutton is posted instead. This use is deprecated in favor of
setting a menu directly as a menubar; see the toplevel's -menu option
for how to do that.
There are several interactions between menubuttons and menus; see the
menu manual entry for information on various menu configurations, such
as pulldown menus and option menus.
WIDGET COMMAND
The menubutton command creates a new Tcl command whose name is path-
Name. This command may be used to invoke various operations on the
widget. It has the following general form:
pathName option ?arg arg ...?
Option and the args determine the exact behavior of the command. The
following commands are possible for menubutton widgets:
pathName cget option
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by
option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the
menubutton command.
pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?
Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no
option is specified, returns a list describing all of the avail-
able 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 menubutton command.
DEFAULT BINDINGS
Tk automatically creates class bindings for menubuttons that give them
the following default behavior:
[1] A menubutton activates whenever the mouse passes over it and
deactivates whenever the mouse leaves it.
[2] Pressing mouse button 1 over a menubutton posts the menubutton:
its relief changes to raised and its associated menu is posted
under the menubutton. If the mouse is dragged down into the
menu with the button still down, and if the mouse button is then
released over an entry in the menu, the menubutton is unposted
and the menu entry is invoked.
[3] If button 1 is pressed over a menubutton and then released over
that menubutton, the menubutton stays posted: you can still move
the mouse over the menu and click button 1 on an entry to invoke
it. Once a menu entry has been invoked, the menubutton unposts
itself.
[4] If button 1 is pressed over a menubutton and then dragged over
some other menubutton, the original menubutton unposts itself
and the new menubutton posts.
[5] If button 1 is pressed over a menubutton and released outside
any menubutton or menu, the menubutton unposts without invoking
any menu entry.
[6] When a menubutton is posted, its associated menu claims the
input focus to allow keyboard traversal of the menu and its sub-
menus. See the menu manual entry for details on these bindings.
[7] If the -underline option has been specified for a menubutton
then keyboard traversal may be used to post the menubutton:
Alt+x, where x is the underlined character (or its lower-case or
upper-case equivalent), may be typed in any window under the
menubutton's toplevel to post the menubutton.
[8] The F10 key may be typed in any window to post the first
menubutton under its toplevel window that is not disabled.
[9] If a menubutton has the input focus, the space and return keys
post the menubutton.
If the menubutton's state is disabled then none of the above actions
occur: the menubutton is completely non-responsive.
The behavior of menubuttons can be changed by defining new bindings for
individual widgets or by redefining the class bindings.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | runtime/tk-8 |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
SEE ALSO
ttk::menubutton(n), menu(n)
KEYWORDS
menubutton, widget
NOTES
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from https://source-
forge.net/projects/tcl/files/Tcl/8.6.7/tk8.6.7-src.tar.gz/download.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at https://www.tcl.tk/.
Tk 4.0 menubutton(1t)