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     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.

     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

     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

     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

     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.