Overview of Tkinter Menu
Tkinter Menu is a widget, that helps in creating a set of action items that are going to be used in the application. Tkinter is a standard package in python. To create multiple choices in terms of symbols and text, the menu helps with that. The moment any of the choices is clicked or touched, an action is activated, that could be in terms of any operation like opening a file, saving a file, etc.
There is two popular variety of Menu, we will discuss here:
- Pull-down
- Pop-up
Syntax:
Below shown is the syntax to create any Menu widget:
w = Menu ( master, option, ... )
Master: The parent window, where the widget needs to be imbibed.
Option: The various parameter related to widget used.
Menu Methods with Examples
The different methods are given below:
1. Pull-down Menu
Let’s discuss the first type of menu i.e. Pulldown Menu.
Code:
from tkinter import *
Master = Tk()
variable = StringVar(Master)
variable.set("Open") # default value
wi = OptionMenu(Master, variable, "Open", "save", "save as")
wi.pack()
mainloop()
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Output:
As one can see, “OptionMenu” is used from the Tkinter package to implement a pull-down menu. Tk helps in the creation of the top-level window. Here “OptionMenu” will pop up with a button. To which, we have set a default value of “Open”. Rest other values “save” & “save as” can be selected from the dropdown. If further someone wants action to be associated with it, one can use .get() function to accomplish it.
As one can notice, as we had only three options. We easily put it in “OptionMenu”. However, if someone has a great list of things to be showcased under “OptionMenu”.
Then here is the approach:
Code:
from tkinter import *
Items = [
"egg",
"toffee",
"chicken",
"beef",
"bread",
"Choclate",
"Milk"
]
Master = Tk()
click = StringVar(Master)
click.set(Items[0]) # default value
wi = OptionMenu(Master,click,*Items)
wi.pack()
mainloop()
Output:
In order to pass the list in “OptionMenu”, the list should be prefixed with an asterisk symbol. This code has easy maintenance, as one can simply add, remove or edit any item in the list quickly. Plus the code looks less clumsy and more readable.
One can even add a submenu to the menu.
Code:
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import filedialog
def Donothing():
x = 0
root = Tk()
menu = Menu(root)
root.config(menu=menu)
filemainmenu = Menu(menu, tearoff=0)
filesubmenu = Menu(filemainmenu, tearoff=0)
menu.add_cascade(label="File", menu=filemainmenu)
filemainmenu.add_cascade(label="Save", menu=filesubmenu)
filesubmenu.add_command(label="Save Nothing", command = Donothing)
root.mainloop()
Output:
As one can see, “Save Nothing” is a submenu of “Save” Label.
With the help of “add_cascade”, one can create sub-menu under the main menu. If you notice well, “filesubmenu = Menu(filemainmenu, tearoff=0)” command is used to associate filesubmenu with filemainmenu. One can add seperator as well between the options. Like:
Code:
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import filedialog
def Donothing():
x = 0
root = Tk()
menu = Menu(root)
root.config(menu=menu)
filemainmenu = Menu(menu, tearoff=0)
filesubmenu = Menu(filemainmenu, tearoff=0)
menu.add_cascade(label="File", menu=filemainmenu)
filemainmenu.add_cascade(label="Save", menu=filesubmenu)
filesubmenu.add_command(label="Save Nothing", command = Donothing)
filemainmenu.add_separator()
filemainmenu.add_command(label="Exit", command=root.quit)
root.mainloop()
Output:
If someone notices well, we used the command: “filemainmenu.add_seperator()”. Its sole purpose is to add a line of separation in the menu.
There are many methods related to the drop-down menu. One needs to experiment with all, in order to get a good grip over Menu designing with Tkinter.
2. Pop-up Menu
The pop-up menu is the menu shown anywhere in the window. It is also known as the context menu. Let’s understand it through the code below.
Code:
from tkinter import *
def Hi():
message.config(text = "Hi")
def Hey():
message.config(text = "Hey")
root = Tk()
root.title("This is an Example: PopUp Menu")
#w = Label(root, text="Right-click to display menu", width=40, height=20)
#w.pack()
message = Label(root,bg = "grey")
message.pack(fill = BOTH,expand = YES)
# create a menu
popup = Menu(root, tearoff=0)
popup.add_command(label="Print Hi",command = Hi)
popup.add_command(label="Print Hey",command = Hey)
def perform_popup(event): # To display the popup menu
try:
popup.tk_popup(event.x_root, event.y_root, 0)
finally:
popup.grab_release()
message.bind("<Button-3>", perform_popup)
mainloop()
Output #1
Output #2
As one can see, how pop up window is used to print “Hi” or “Hey” accordingly, with the help of functions defined. First, the window is created with help of Tkinter root(which is the top-level window), and then pop-menu is added on it with help of “Menu(root)”
When tearoff = 0, means menu options will be added at the starting position. Now over the window, when one right clicks, it opens the 2-D popup menu with options listed. The label one clicks, action triggers as per that which we call event.
Command:
“popup.tk_popup(event.x_root, event.y_root, 0)” will post the pop up at location “x_root” and “y_root”
If someone doesn’t want any action to be associated with the label. One can opt for it, by simply doing nothing.
Code:
from tkinter import *
def Donothing():
x = 0
def Hey():
message.config(text = "Hey")
root = Tk()
root.title("This is an Example: PopUp Menu")
#w = Label(root, text="Right-click to display menu", width=40, height=20)
#w.pack()
message = Label(root,bg = "grey")
message.pack(fill = BOTH,expand = YES)
# create a menu
popup = Menu(root, tearoff=0)
popup.add_command(label="Print Hi",command = Donothing)
popup.add_command(label="Print Hey",command = Hey)
def perform_popup(event): # To display the popup menu
try:
popup.tk_popup(event.x_root, event.y_root, 0)
finally:
popup.grab_release()
message.bind("<Button-3>", perform_popup)
mainloop()
Output:
Conclusion
As we saw above, the Tkinter menu and its various usage-based on certain examples. Examples shown above are straightforward and easy to grab. Tkinter menu is of great help, in building applications with various options as part of it. One can embed options in drop down or pop up menu as per requirement and hence associate it with action items. There are a lot of methods available with the menu, one must get their hands dirty in order to understand it fully.
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