10. tk Menubutton

See: https://docs.python.org/3/library/tkinter.html#tkinter.Menubutton
See: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-tkinter-menubutton-widget/

10.1. Overview

The tk.Menubutton widget creates a button that displays a menu when clicked.
It is useful for creating drop-down buttons, toolbar menus, and option selectors.
Unlike tk.Menu, a Menubutton is a visible widget placed inside a window.
To create a Menubutton widget, the general syntax is
(assuming import via "import tkinter as tk"):
menubutton_widget = tk.Menubutton(parent, option=value)
* parent is the window or frame object.
* option=value specifies one or more configuration options.
A menu is attached to a Menubutton using menu=menu_widget.
menu_widget = tk.Menu(parent, option=value)
* parent is the menubutton widget.
* option=value specifies one or more configuration options.

10.2. Sample Menubutton

../_images/menubutton.png
The code below creates a Menubutton with a drop-down menu.
import tkinter as tk

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

menubutton = tk.Menubutton(
    root,
    text="Options",
    relief="raised"
)

# Create the menu owned by the Menubutton
menu = tk.Menu(menubutton, tearoff=0)

menu.add_command(label="Option 1")
menu.add_command(label="Option 2")
menu.add_separator()
menu.add_command(label="Exit", command=root.destroy)

# Attach the menu
menubutton.config(menu=menu)

menubutton.pack(padx=20, pady=20)

root.mainloop()

Tasks

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

    • Create a Menubutton labelled Colours.

    • Add menu options Red, Green, and Blue.

    • Add a separator before the final option.

    • Add an Exit command that closes the window.

    • Colour the Red, Green, and Blue options red, green, and blue respectively using the entryconfig method.

    ../_images/menubutton_question.png

Modify the code so it creates the Menubutton shown above.

import tkinter as tk

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

# Create the Menubutton
menubutton = tk.Menubutton(
    root,
    text="Colours",
    relief="raised"
)

# Create the menu
colour_menu = tk.Menu(menubutton, tearoff=0)

colour_menu.add_command(label="Red")
colour_menu.add_command(label="Green")
colour_menu.add_command(label="Blue")
colour_menu.add_separator()
colour_menu.add_command(label="Exit", command=root.destroy)

# Colour individual menu entries
colour_menu.entryconfig("Red", foreground="red")
colour_menu.entryconfig("Green", foreground="green")
colour_menu.entryconfig("Blue", foreground="blue")

menubutton.config(menu=colour_menu)

menubutton.pack(padx=20, pady=20)

root.mainloop()

10.3. Common Menubutton Methods

10.5. Parameter syntax

menubutton_widget = tk.Menubutton(parent, option=value)

Parameters:

activebackground
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(activebackground="color")
Description: Background colour when the mouse is over the button.
Default: SystemButtonFace
activeforeground
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(activeforeground="color")
Description: Text colour when the mouse is over the button.
Default: SystemButtonText
anchor
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(anchor="position")
Description: Controls where the text is positioned inside the widget.
Default: center
background
bg
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(bg="color")
Description: Sets the background colour.
Default: SystemButtonFace
bd
borderwidth
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(borderwidth=value)
Description: Sets the border width.
Default: 2
compound
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(compound="position")
Description: Controls the position of text relative to an image.
Default: none
cursor
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(cursor="cursor_type")
Description: Sets the mouse cursor.
Example: cursor="hand2"
direction
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(direction="direction")
Description: Controls where the menu appears relative to the button.
Possible values: above, below, left, right
font
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(font=("Font", size))
Description: Sets the font used for the button text.
foreground
fg
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(fg="color")
Description: Sets the text colour.
height
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(height=value)
Description: Sets the height of the widget.
image
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(image=image_object)
Description: Displays an image on the button.
indicatoron
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(indicatoron=boolean)
Description: Displays a small indicator arrow when enabled.
Default: 1
justify
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(justify="alignment")
Description: Controls multi-line text alignment.
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(menu=menu_widget)
Description: Attaches a Menu widget to the Menubutton.
padx
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(padx=value)
Description: Sets horizontal internal padding.
pady
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(pady=value)
Description: Sets vertical internal padding.
relief
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(relief="style")
Description: Sets the border style.
Default: raised
state
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(state="state")
Description: Sets the widget state.
Values: normal or disabled
text
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(text="label")
Description: Sets the displayed text.
textvariable
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(textvariable=variable)
Description: Associates a Tkinter variable with the button text.
underline
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(underline=index)
Description: Underlines the specified character in the text.
width
Syntax: menubutton_widget.config(width=value)
Description: Sets the width of the widget.

10.6. Default options

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

root = tk.Tk()

widget = tk.Menubutton(root)

for option in widget.keys():
    print(f"{option}: {widget.cget(option)}")