9. tk Menu

See: https://docs.python.org/3/library/tkinter.html#tkinter.Menu
See: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-menu-widget-in-tkinter/

9.1. Overview

The tk.Menu widget creates menus in a Tkinter application.
It can be used to create:
* a menu bar attached to the main application window,
* pull-down submenus,
* shortcut (context) menus that appear when the user right-clicks.
To create a menu widget, the general syntax is
(assuming import via "import tkinter as tk"):
menu_widget = tk.Menu(parent, option=value)
* parent is the parent window or another Menu widget (or a menubutton widget).
* option=value specifies one or more configuration options.
Menus are normally attached to a tk.Tk window using ``root.config(menu=menubar)`
Submenus are attached to another Menu using add_cascade().

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9.2. Sample Menu

../_images/menu.png
The code below creates a simple file menu with an "Exit" command.
import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Menu Example")
root.geometry("300x200")

# 1. Create the main Menu bar
menubar = tk.Menu(root)
root.config(menu=menubar)

# 2. Create a "File" submenu
file_menu = tk.Menu(menubar, tearoff=0)
menubar.add_cascade(label="File", menu=file_menu)

# 3. Add commands to the "File" submenu
file_menu.add_command(label="Exit", command=root.destroy)

root.mainloop()

Tasks

  1. Modify the code to create the menu shown below.

    • Add a File menu to the menu bar.

    • Add the menu commands New, Open, and Exit.

    • Insert a separator between Open and Exit.

    • Disable the tear-off feature.

    ../_images/menu_question.png

Modify the code so it creates the menu shown above.

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Menu Question")
root.geometry("300x200")

# Create the menu bar
menubar = tk.Menu(root)
root.config(menu=menubar)

# Create the File menu
file_menu = tk.Menu(menubar, tearoff=0)

# Add the File menu to the menu bar
menubar.add_cascade(label="File", menu=file_menu)

# Add menu commands
file_menu.add_command(label="New")
file_menu.add_command(label="Open")
file_menu.add_separator()
file_menu.add_command(label="Exit", command=root.destroy)

root.mainloop()

9.3. Common Menu Methods

Adds a command item to the menu.
Adds a checkbutton menu item.
Adds a radio button menu item.
Adds a horizontal separator.
Attaches a submenu to the menu.
Displays the menu as a popup at the specified screen coordinates.
Changes the configuration of an existing menu item.
Removes one or more menu items.

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9.4. Parameter syntax

menu_widget = tk.Menu(parent, option=value)

Parameters:

activebackground
Syntax: menu_widget.config(activebackground="color")
Description: Background color of the item when active or hovered.
Default: SystemHighlight
activeforeground
Syntax: menu_widget.config(activeforeground="color")
Description: Text color of the item when active or hovered.
Default: SystemHighlightText
background or bg
Syntax: menu_widget.config(bg="color")
Description: Background color of the menu.
font
Syntax: menu_widget.config(font=("FontName", size, style))
Description: Font of the menu items.
fg or foreground
Syntax: menu_widget.config(fg="color")
Description: Text color of the menu items.
tearoff
Syntax: menu_widget.config(tearoff=boolean)
Description: Whether the menu can be "torn off" into a separate window.
Default: 1

Note

tearoff=0 disables the dashed line that allows a menu to be detached into its own window. Most modern applications set this option to 0.

9.5. Default options

Code to display the default value for each Menu option is shown below.
import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

widget = tk.Menu(root)
widget_options = widget.keys()

for option in widget_options:
    print(f"{option}: {widget.cget(option)}")  # cget retrieves the current value of the option