Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
NAME
text, tktextCopy, tktextCut, tktextPaste - Create and
manipulate text widgets
SYNOPSIS
text pathName ?options?
tktextCopy pathName
tktextCut pathName
tktextPaste pathName
STANDARD OPTIONS
-background -highlightthickness -relief
-borderwidth -insertbackground -selectbackground
-cursor -insertborderwidth -selectborderwidth
-exportselection -insertofftime -selectforeground
-font -insertontime -setgrid
-foreground -insertwidth -takefocus
-highlightbackground -padx -xscrollcommand
-highlightcolor -pady -yscrollcommand
See the options manual entry for details on the standard
options.
WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
Command-Line Name:-autoseparators
Database Name: autoSeparators
Database Class: AutoSeparators
Specifies a boolean that says whether separators are
automatically inserted in the undo stack. Only meaning-
ful when the -undo option is true.
Command-Line Name:-height
Database Name: height
Database Class: Height
Specifies the desired height for the window, in units
of characters in the font given by the -font option.
Must be at least one.
Command-Line Name:-maxundo
Database Name: maxUndo
Database Class: MaxUndo
Specifies the maximum number of compound undo actions
on the undo stack. A zero or a negative value imply an
unlimited undo stack.
Command-Line Name:-spacing1
Database Name: spacing1
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
Database Class: Spacing1
Requests additional space above each text line in the
widget, using any of the standard forms for screen dis-
tances. If a line wraps, this option only applies to
the first line on the display. This option may be
overridden with -spacing1 options in tags.
Command-Line Name:-spacing2
Database Name: spacing2
Database Class: Spacing2
For lines that wrap (so that they cover more than one
line on the display) this option specifies additional
space to provide between the display lines that
represent a single line of text. The value may have
any of the standard forms for screen distances. This
option may be overridden with -spacing2 options in
tags.
Command-Line Name:-spacing3
Database Name: spacing3
Database Class: Spacing3
Requests additional space below each text line in the
widget, using any of the standard forms for screen dis-
tances. If a line wraps, this option only applies to
the last line on the display. This option may be over-
ridden with -spacing3 options in tags.
Command-Line Name:-state
Database Name: state
Database Class: State
Specifies one of two states for the text: normal or
disabled. If the text is disabled then characters may
not be inserted or deleted and no insertion cursor will
be displayed, even if the input focus is in the widget.
Command-Line Name:-tabs
Database Name: tabs
Database Class: Tabs
Specifies a set of tab stops for the window. The
option's value consists of a list of screen distances
giving the positions of the tab stops, each of which is
a distance relative to the left edge of the widget
(excluding borders, padding, etc). Each position may
optionally be followed in the next list element by one
of the keywords left, right, center, or numeric, which
specifies how to justify text relative to the tab stop.
Left is the default; it causes the text following the
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tab character to be positioned with its left edge at
the tab position. Right means that the right edge of
the text following the tab character is positioned at
the tab position, and center means that the text is
centered at the tab position. Numeric means that the
decimal point in the text is positioned at the tab
position; if there is no decimal point then the least
significant digit of the number is positioned just to
the left of the tab position; if there is no number in
the text then the text is right-justified at the tab
position. For example, -tabs {2c left 4c 6c center}
creates three tab stops at two-centimeter intervals;
the first two use left justification and the third uses
center justification. If the list of tab stops does
not have enough elements to cover all of the tabs in a
text line, then Tk extrapolates new tab stops using the
spacing and alignment from the last tab stop in the
list. Tab distances must be strictly positive, and
must always increase from one tab stop to the next (if
not, an error is thrown). The value of the tabs option
may be overridden by -tabs options in tags. If no
-tabs option is specified, or if it is specified as an
empty list, then Tk uses default tabs spaced every
eight (average size) characters.
Command-Line Name:-undo
Database Name: undo
Database Class: Undo
Specifies a boolean that says whether the undo mechan-
ism is active or not.
Command-Line Name:-width
Database Name: width
Database Class: Width
Specifies the desired width for the window in units of
characters in the font given by the -font option. If
the font doesn't have a uniform width then the width of
the character ``0'' is used in translating from charac-
ter units to screen units.
Command-Line Name:-wrap
Database Name: wrap
Database Class: Wrap
Specifies how to handle lines in the text that are too
long to be displayed in a single line of the text's
window. The value must be none or char or word. A
wrap mode of none means that each line of text appears
as exactly one line on the screen; extra characters
that don't fit on the screen are not displayed. In the
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other modes each line of text will be broken up into
several screen lines if necessary to keep all the char-
acters visible. In char mode a screen line break may
occur after any character; in word mode a line break
will only be made at word boundaries.
DESCRIPTION
The text command creates a new window (given by the pathName
argument) and makes it into a text widget. Additional
options, described above, may be specified on the command
line or in the option database to configure aspects of the
text such as its default background color and relief. The
text command returns the path name of the new window.
A text widget displays one or more lines of text and allows
that text to be edited. Text widgets support four different
kinds of annotations on the text, called tags, marks, embed-
ded windows or embedded images. Tags allow different por-
tions of the text to be displayed with different fonts and
colors. In addition, Tcl commands can be associated with
tags so that scripts are invoked when particular actions
such as keystrokes and mouse button presses occur in partic-
ular ranges of the text. See TAGS below for more details.
The second form of annotation consists of floating markers
in the text called "marks". Marks are used to keep track of
various interesting positions in the text as it is edited.
See MARKS below for more details.
The third form of annotation allows arbitrary windows to be
embedded in a text widget. See EMBEDED WINDOWS below for
more details.
The fourth form of annotation allows Tk images to be embed-
ded in a text widget. See EMBEDED IMAGES below for more
details.
The text widget also has a built-in undo/redo mechanism.
See THE UNDO MECHANISM below for more details.
INDICES
Many of the widget commands for texts take one or more
indices as arguments. An index is a string used to indicate
a particular place within a text, such as a place to insert
characters or one endpoint of a range of characters to
delete. Indices have the syntax
base modifier modifier modifier ...
Where base gives a starting point and the modifiers adjust
the index from the starting point (e.g. move forward or
backward one character). Every index must contain a base,
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but the modifiers are optional.
The base for an index must have one of the following forms:
line.char Indicates char'th character on line line. Lines
are numbered from 1 for consistency with other
UNIX programs that use this numbering scheme.
Within a line, characters are numbered from 0.
If char is end then it refers to the newline
character that ends the line.
@x,y Indicates the character that covers the pixel
whose x and y coordinates within the text's win-
dow are x and y.
end Indicates the end of the text (the character
just after the last newline).
mark Indicates the character just after the mark
whose name is mark.
tag.first Indicates the first character in the text that
has been tagged with tag. This form generates
an error if no characters are currently tagged
with tag.
tag.last Indicates the character just after the last one
in the text that has been tagged with tag. This
form generates an error if no characters are
currently tagged with tag.
pathName Indicates the position of the embedded window
whose name is pathName. This form generates an
error if there is no embedded window by the
given name.
imageName Indicates the position of the embedded image
whose name is imageName. This form generates an
error if there is no embedded image by the given
name.
If the base could match more than one of the above forms,
such as a mark and imageName both having the same value,
then the form earlier in the above list takes precedence.
If modifiers follow the base index, each one of them must
have one of the forms listed below. Keywords such as chars
and wordend may be abbreviated as long as the abbreviation
is unambiguous.
] count chars
Adjust the index forward by count characters, moving to
later lines in the text if necessary. If there are
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fewer than count characters in the text after the
current index, then set the index to the last character
in the text. Spaces on either side of count are
optional.
- count chars
Adjust the index backward by count characters, moving
to earlier lines in the text if necessary. If there
are fewer than count characters in the text before the
current index, then set the index to the first charac-
ter in the text. Spaces on either side of count are
optional.
] count lines
Adjust the index forward by count lines, retaining the
same character position within the line. If there are
fewer than count lines after the line containing the
current index, then set the index to refer to the same
character position on the last line of the text. Then,
if the line is not long enough to contain a character
at the indicated character position, adjust the charac-
ter position to refer to the last character of the line
(the newline). Spaces on either side of count are
optional.
- count lines
Adjust the index backward by count lines, retaining the
same character position within the line. If there are
fewer than count lines before the line containing the
current index, then set the index to refer to the same
character position on the first line of the text.
Then, if the line is not long enough to contain a char-
acter at the indicated character position, adjust the
character position to refer to the last character of
the line (the newline). Spaces on either side of count
are optional.
linestart
Adjust the index to refer to the first character on the
line.
lineend
Adjust the index to refer to the last character on the
line (the newline).
wordstart
Adjust the index to refer to the first character of the
word containing the current index. A word consists of
any number of adjacent characters that are letters,
digits, or underscores, or a single character that is
not one of these.
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wordend
Adjust the index to refer to the character just after
the last one of the word containing the current index.
If the current index refers to the last character of
the text then it is not modified.
If more than one modifier is present then they are applied
in left-to-right order. For example, the index ``end - 1
chars'' refers to the next-to-last character in the text and
``insert wordstart - 1 c'' refers to the character just
before the first one in the word containing the insertion
cursor. Modifiers are applied one by one in this left to
right order, and after each step the resulting index is con-
strained to be a valid index in the text widget. So, for
example, the index ``1.0 -1c ]1c'' refers to the index
``2.0''.
TAGS
The first form of annotation in text widgets is a tag. A
tag is a textual string that is associated with some of the
characters in a text. Tags may contain arbitrary charac-
ters, but it is probably best to avoid using the characters
`` '' (space), ], or -: these characters have special mean-
ing in indices, so tags containing them can't be used as
indices. There may be any number of tags associated with
characters in a text. Each tag may refer to a single char-
acter, a range of characters, or several ranges of charac-
ters. An individual character may have any number of tags
associated with it.
A priority order is defined among tags, and this order is
used in implementing some of the tag-related functions
described below. When a tag is defined (by associating it
with characters or setting its display options or binding
commands to it), it is given a priority higher than any
existing tag. The priority order of tags may be redefined
using the ``pathName tag raise'' and ``pathName tag lower''
widget commands.
Tags serve three purposes in text widgets. First, they con-
trol the way information is displayed on the screen. By
default, characters are displayed as determined by the back-
ground, font, and foreground options for the text widget.
However, display options may be associated with individual
tags using the ``pathName tag configure'' widget command.
If a character has been tagged, then the display options
associated with the tag override the default display style.
The following options are currently supported for tags:
-background color
Color specifies the background color to use for charac-
ters associated with the tag. It may have any of the
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forms accepted by TkGetColor.
-bgstipple bitmap
Bitmap specifies a bitmap that is used as a stipple
pattern for the background. It may have any of the
forms accepted by TkGetBitmap. If bitmap hasn't been
specified, or if it is specified as an empty string,
then a solid fill will be used for the background.
-borderwidth pixels
Pixels specifies the width of a 3-D border to draw
around the background. It may have any of the forms
accepted by TkGetPixels. This option is used in con-
junction with the -relief option to give a 3-D appear-
ance to the background for characters; it is ignored
unless the -background option has been set for the tag.
-elide boolean
Elide specifies whether the data should be elided.
Elided data is not displayed and takes no space on
screen, but further on behaves just as normal data.
-fgstipple bitmap
Bitmap specifies a bitmap that is used as a stipple
pattern when drawing text and other foreground informa-
tion such as underlines. It may have any of the forms
accepted by TkGetBitmap. If bitmap hasn't been speci-
fied, or if it is specified as an empty string, then a
solid fill will be used.
-font fontName
FontName is the name of a font to use for drawing char-
acters. It may have any of the forms accepted by
TkGetFont.
-foreground color
Color specifies the color to use when drawing text and
other foreground information such as underlines. It
may have any of the forms accepted by TkGetColor.
-justify justify
If the first character of a display line has a tag for
which this option has been specified, then justify
determines how to justify the line. It must be one of
left, right, or center. If a line wraps, then the jus-
tification for each line on the display is determined
by the first character of that display line.
-lmargin1 pixels
If the first character of a text line has a tag for
which this option has been specified, then pixels
specifies how much the line should be indented from the
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left edge of the window. Pixels may have any of the
standard forms for screen distances. If a line of text
wraps, this option only applies to the first line on
the display; the -lmargin2 option controls the inden-
tation for subsequent lines.
-lmargin2 pixels
If the first character of a display line has a tag for
which this option has been specified, and if the
display line is not the first for its text line (i.e.,
the text line has wrapped), then pixels specifies how
much the line should be indented from the left edge of
the window. Pixels may have any of the standard forms
for screen distances. This option is only used when
wrapping is enabled, and it only applies to the second
and later display lines for a text line.
-offset pixels
Pixels specifies an amount by which the text's baseline
should be offset vertically from the baseline of the
overall line, in pixels. For example, a positive
offset can be used for superscripts and a negative
offset can be used for subscripts. Pixels may have any
of the standard forms for screen distances.
-overstrike boolean
Specifies whether or not to draw a horizontal rule
through the middle of characters. Boolean may have any
of the forms accepted by TclGetBoolean.
-relief relief
Relief specifies the 3-D relief to use for drawing
backgrounds, in any of the forms accepted by
TkGetRelief. This option is used in conjunction with
the -borderwidth option to give a 3-D appearance to the
background for characters; it is ignored unless the
-background option has been set for the tag.
-rmargin pixels
If the first character of a display line has a tag for
which this option has been specified, then pixels
specifies how wide a margin to leave between the end of
the line and the right edge of the window. Pixels may
have any of the standard forms for screen distances.
This option is only used when wrapping is enabled. If
a text line wraps, the right margin for each line on
the display is determined by the first character of
that display line.
-spacing1 pixels
Pixels specifies how much additional space should be
left above each text line, using any of the standard
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
forms for screen distances. If a line wraps, this
option only applies to the first line on the display.
-spacing2 pixels
For lines that wrap, this option specifies how much
additional space to leave between the display lines for
a single text line. Pixels may have any of the stan-
dard forms for screen distances.
-spacing3 pixels
Pixels specifies how much additional space should be
left below each text line, using any of the standard
forms for screen distances. If a line wraps, this
option only applies to the last line on the display.
-tabs tabList
TabList specifies a set of tab stops in the same form
as for the -tabs option for the text widget. This
option only applies to a display line if it applies to
the first character on that display line. If this
option is specified as an empty string, it cancels the
option, leaving it unspecified for the tag (the
default). If the option is specified as a non-empty
string that is an empty list, such as -tags { }, then
it requests default 8-character tabs as described for
the tags widget option.
-underline boolean
Boolean specifies whether or not to draw an underline
underneath characters. It may have any of the forms
accepted by TclGetBoolean.
-wrap mode
Mode specifies how to handle lines that are wider than
the text's window. It has the same legal values as the
-wrap option for the text widget: none, char, or word.
If this tag option is specified, it overrides the -wrap
option for the text widget.
If a character has several tags associated with it, and if
their display options conflict, then the options of the
highest priority tag are used. If a particular display
option hasn't been specified for a particular tag, or if it
is specified as an empty string, then that option will never
be used; the next-highest-priority tag's option will used
instead. If no tag specifies a particular display option,
then the default style for the widget will be used.
The second purpose for tags is event bindings. You can
associate bindings with a tag in much the same way you can
associate bindings with a widget class: whenever particular
X events occur on characters with the given tag, a given Tcl
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
command will be executed. Tag bindings can be used to give
behaviors to ranges of characters; among other things, this
allows hypertext-like features to be implemented. For
details, see the description of the tag bind widget command
below.
The third use for tags is in managing the selection. See
THE SELECTION below.
MARKS
The second form of annotation in text widgets is a mark.
Marks are used for remembering particular places in a text.
They are something like tags, in that they have names and
they refer to places in the file, but a mark isn't associ-
ated with particular characters. Instead, a mark is associ-
ated with the gap between two characters. Only a single
position may be associated with a mark at any given time.
If the characters around a mark are deleted the mark will
still remain; it will just have new neighbor characters.
In contrast, if the characters containing a tag are deleted
then the tag will no longer have an association with charac-
ters in the file. Marks may be manipulated with the ``path-
Name mark'' widget command, and their current locations may
be determined by using the mark name as an index in widget
commands.
Each mark also has a "gravity", which is either left or
right. The gravity for a mark specifies what happens to the
mark when text is inserted at the point of the mark. If a
mark has left gravity, then the mark is treated as if it
were attached to the character on its left, so the mark will
remain to the left of any text inserted at the mark posi-
tion. If the mark has right gravity, new text inserted at
the mark position will appear to the left of the mark (so
that the mark remains rightmost). The gravity for a mark
defaults to right.
The name space for marks is different from that for tags:
the same name may be used for both a mark and a tag, but
they will refer to different things.
Two marks have special significance. First, the mark insert
is associated with the insertion cursor, as described under
THE INSERTION CURSOR below. Second, the mark current is
associated with the character closest to the mouse and is
adjusted automatically to track the mouse position and any
changes to the text in the widget (one exception: current
is not updated in response to mouse motions if a mouse but-
ton is down; the update will be deferred until all mouse
buttons have been released). Neither of these special marks
may be deleted.
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
EMBEDED WINDOWS
The third form of annotation in text widgets is an embedded
window. Each embedded window annotation causes a window to
be displayed at a particular point in the text. There may
be any number of embedded windows in a text widget, and any
widget may be used as an embedded window (subject to the
usual rules for geometry management, which require the text
window to be the parent of the embedded window or a descen-
dant of its parent). The embedded window's position on the
screen will be updated as the text is modified or scrolled,
and it will be mapped and unmapped as it moves into and out
of the visible area of the text widget. Each embedded win-
dow occupies one character's worth of index space in the
text widget, and it may be referred to either by the name of
its embedded window or by its position in the widget's index
space. If the range of text containing the embedded window
is deleted then the window is destroyed.
When an embedded window is added to a text widget with the
window create widget command, several configuration options
may be associated with it. These options may be modified
later with the window configure widget command. The follow-
ing options are currently supported:
-align where
If the window is not as tall as the line in which it is
displayed, this option determines where the window is
displayed in the line. Where must have one of the
values top (align the top of the window with the top of
the line), center (center the window within the range
of the line), bottom (align the bottom of the window
with the bottom of the line's area), or baseline (align
the bottom of the window with the baseline of the
line).
-create script
Specifies a Tcl script that may be evaluated to create
the window for the annotation. If no -window option
has been specified for the annotation this script will
be evaluated when the annotation is about to be
displayed on the screen. Script must create a window
for the annotation and return the name of that window
as its result. If the annotation's window should ever
be deleted, script will be evaluated again the next
time the annotation is displayed.
-padx pixels
Pixels specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
each side of the embedded window. It may have any of
the usual forms defined for a screen distance.
-pady pixels
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Pixels specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
the top and on the bottom of the embedded window. It
may have any of the usual forms defined for a screen
distance.
-stretch boolean
If the requested height of the embedded window is less
than the height of the line in which it is displayed,
this option can be used to specify whether the window
should be stretched vertically to fill its line. If
the -pady option has been specified as well, then the
requested padding will be retained even if the window
is stretched.
-window pathName
Specifies the name of a window to display in the anno-
tation.
EMBEDED IMAGES
The final form of annotation in text widgets is an embedded
image. Each embedded image annotation causes an image to be
displayed at a particular point in the text. There may be
any number of embedded images in a text widget, and a par-
ticular image may be embedded in multiple places in the same
text widget. The embedded image's position on the screen
will be updated as the text is modified or scrolled. Each
embedded image occupies one character's worth of index space
in the text widget, and it may be referred to either by its
position in the widget's index space, or the name it is
assigned when the image is inserted into the text widget
with image create. If the range of text containing the
embedded image is deleted then that copy of the image is
removed from the screen.
When an embedded image is added to a text widget with the
image create widget command, a name unique to this instance
of the image is returned. This name may then be used to
refer to this image instance. The name is taken to be the
value of the -name option (described below). If the -name
option is not provided, the -image name is used instead. If
the imageName is already in use in the text widget, then #nn
is added to the end of the imageName, where nn is an arbi-
trary integer. This insures the imageName is unique. Once
this name is assigned to this instance of the image, it does
not change, even though the -image or -name values can be
changed with image configure.
When an embedded image is added to a text widget with the
image create widget command, several configuration options
may be associated with it. These options may be modified
later with the image configure widget command. The follow-
ing options are currently supported:
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-align where
If the image is not as tall as the line in which it is
displayed, this option determines where the image is
displayed in the line. Where must have one of the
values top (align the top of the image with the top of
the line), center (center the image within the range of
the line), bottom (align the bottom of the image with
the bottom of the line's area), or baseline (align the
bottom of the image with the baseline of the line).
-image image
Specifies the name of the Tk image to display in the
annotation. If image is not a valid Tk image, then an
error is returned.
-name ImageName
Specifies the name by which this image instance may be
referenced in the text widget. If ImageName is not sup-
plied, then the name of the Tk image is used instead.
If the imageName is already in use, #nn is appended to
the end of the name as described above.
-padx pixels
Pixels specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
each side of the embedded image. It may have any of
the usual forms defined for a screen distance.
-pady pixels
Pixels specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
the top and on the bottom of the embedded image. It
may have any of the usual forms defined for a screen
distance.
THE SELECTION
Selection support is implemented via tags. If the export-
Selection option for the text widget is true then the sel
tag will be associated with the selection:
[1] Whenever characters are tagged with sel the text widget
will claim ownership of the selection.
[2] Attempts to retrieve the selection will be serviced by
the text widget, returning all the characters with the
sel tag.
[3] If the selection is claimed away by another application
or by another window within this application, then the
sel tag will be removed from all characters in the
text.
[4] Whenever the sel tag range changes a virtual event
<> is generated.
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The sel tag is automatically defined when a text widget is
created, and it may not be deleted with the ``pathName tag
delete'' widget command. Furthermore, the selectBackground,
selectBorderWidth, and selectForeground options for the text
widget are tied to the -background, -borderwidth, and -fore-
ground options for the sel tag: changes in either will
automatically be reflected in the other.
THE INSERTION CURSOR
The mark named insert has special significance in text widg-
ets. It is defined automatically when a text widget is
created and it may not be unset with the ``pathName mark
unset'' widget command. The insert mark represents the
position of the insertion cursor, and the insertion cursor
will automatically be drawn at this point whenever the text
widget has the input focus.
THE MODIFIED FLAG
The text widget can keep track of changes to the content of
the widget by means of the modified flag. Inserting or
deleting text will set this flag. The flag can be queried,
set and cleared programmatically as well. Whenever the flag
changes state a <> virtual event is generated. See
the edit modified widget command for more details.
THE UNDO MECHANISM
The text widget has an unlimited undo and redo mechanism
(when the -undo widget option is true) which records every
insert and delete action on a stack.
Boundaries (called "separators") are inserted between edit
actions. The purpose of these separators is to group
inserts, deletes and replaces into one compound edit action.
When undoing a change everything between two separators will
be undone. The undone changes are then moved to the redo
stack, so that an undone edit can be redone again. The redo
stack is cleared whenever new edit actions are recorded on
the undo stack. The undo and redo stacks can be cleared to
keep their depth under control.
Separators are inserted automatically when the -autosepara-
tors widget option is true. You can insert separators pro-
grammatically as well. If a separator is already present at
the top of the undo stack no other will be inserted. That
means that two separators on the undo stack are always
separated by at least one insert or delete action.
The undo mechanism is also linked to the modified flag.
This means that undoing or redoing changes can take a modi-
fied text widget back to the unmodified state or vice versa.
The modified flag will be set automatically to the appropri-
ate state. This automatic coupling does not work when the
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
modified flag has been set by the user, until the flag has
been reset again.
See below for the edit widget command that controls the undo
mechanism.
WIDGET COMAND
The text command creates a new Tcl command whose name is the
same as the path name of the text's window. This command
may be used to invoke various operations on the widget. It
has the following general form:
pathName option ?arg arg ...?
PathName is the name of the command, which is the same as
the text widget's path name. Option and the args determine
the exact behavior of the command. The following commands
are possible for text widgets:
pathName bbox index
Returns a list of four elements describing the screen
area of the character given by index. The first two
elements of the list give the x and y coordinates of
the upper-left corner of the area occupied by the char-
acter, and the last two elements give the width and
height of the area. If the character is only partially
visible on the screen, then the return value reflects
just the visible part. If the character is not visible
on the screen then the return value is an empty list.
pathName cget option
Returns the current value of the configuration option
given by option. Option may have any of the values
accepted by the text command.
pathName compare index1 op index2
Compares the indices given by index1 and index2 accord-
ing to the relational operator given by op, and returns
1 if the relationship is satisfied and 0 if it isn't.
Op must be one of the operators <, <=, ==, >=, >, or
!=. If op is == then 1 is returned if the two indices
refer to the same character, if op is < then 1 is
returned if index1 refers to an earlier character in
the text than index2, and so on.
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 available options for pathName
(see TkConfigureInfo 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 correspond-
ing sublist of the value returned if no option is
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
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 text command.
pathName debug ?boolean?
If boolean is specified, then it must have one of the
true or false values accepted by TclGetBoolean. If
the value is a true one then internal consistency
checks will be turned on in the B-tree code associated
with text widgets. If boolean has a false value then
the debugging checks will be turned off. In either
case the command returns an empty string. If boolean
is not specified then the command returns on or off to
indicate whether or not debugging is turned on. There
is a single debugging switch shared by all text widg-
ets: turning debugging on or off in any widget turns
it on or off for all widgets. For widgets with large
amounts of text, the consistency checks may cause a
noticeable slow-down.
When debugging is turned on, the drawing routines of the
text widget set the global variables tktextRedraw and
tktextRelayout to the lists of indices that are redrawn.
The values of these variables are tested by Tk's test suite.
pathName delete index1 ?index2 ...?
Delete a range of characters from the text. If both
index1 and index2 are specified, then delete all the
characters starting with the one given by index1 and
stopping just before index2 (i.e. the character at
index2 is not deleted). If index2 doesn't specify a
position later in the text than index1 then no charac-
ters are deleted. If index2 isn't specified then the
single character at index1 is deleted. It is not
allowable to delete characters in a way that would
leave the text without a newline as the last character.
The command returns an empty string. If more indices
are given, multiple ranges of text will be deleted.
All indices are first checked for validity before any
deletions are made. They are sorted and the text is
removed from the last range to the first range to
deleted text does not cause an undesired index shifting
side-effects. If multiple ranges with the same start
index are given, then the longest range is used. If
overlapping ranges are given, then they will be merged
into spans that do not cause deletion of text outside
the given ranges due to text shifted during deletion.
pathName dlineinfo index
Returns a list with five elements describing the area
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
occupied by the display line containing index. The
first two elements of the list give the x and y coordi-
nates of the upper-left corner of the area occupied by
the line, the third and fourth elements give the width
and height of the area, and the fifth element gives the
position of the baseline for the line, measured down
from the top of the area. All of this information is
measured in pixels. If the current wrap mode is none
and the line extends beyond the boundaries of the win-
dow, the area returned reflects the entire area of the
line, including the portions that are out of the win-
dow. If the line is shorter than the full width of the
window then the area returned reflects just the portion
of the line that is occupied by characters and embedded
windows. If the display line containing index is not
visible on the screen then the return value is an empty
list.
pathName dump ?switches? index1 ?index2?
Return the contents of the text widget from index1 up
to, but not including index2, including the text and
information about marks, tags, and embedded windows.
If index2 is not specified, then it defaults to one
character past index1. The information is returned in
the following format:
key1 value1 index1 key2 value2 index2 ...
The possible key values are text, mark, tagon, tagoff,
image, and window. The corresponding value is the
text, mark name, tag name, image name, or window name.
The index information is the index of the start of the
text, mark, tag transition, image or window. One or
more of the following switches (or abbreviations
thereof) may be specified to control the dump:
-all Return information about all elements: text,
marks, tags, images and windows. This is the
default.
-command command
Instead of returning the information as the result
of the dump operation, invoke the command on each
element of the text widget within the range. The
command has three arguments appended to it before
it is evaluated: the key, value, and index.
-image
Include information about images in the dump
results.
-mark
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
Include information about marks in the dump
results.
-tag Include information about tag transitions in the
dump results. Tag information is returned as tagon
and tagoff elements that indicate the begin and
end of each range of each tag, respectively.
-text
Include information about text in the dump
results. The value is the text up to the next
element or the end of range indicated by index2.
A text element does not span newlines. A multi-
line block of text that contains no marks or tag
transitions will still be dumped as a set of text
segments that each end with a newline. The new-
line is part of the value.
-window
Include information about embedded windows in the
dump results. The value of a window is its Tk
pathname, unless the window has not been created
yet. (It must have a create script.) In this
case an empty string is returned, and you must
query the window by its index position to get more
information.
pathName edit option ?arg arg ...?
This command controls the undo mechanism and the modi-
fied flag. The exact behavior of the command depends
on the option argument that follows the edit argument.
The following forms of the command are currently sup-
ported:
pathName edit modified ?boolean?
If boolean is not specified, returns the modified
flag of the widget. The insert, delete, edit undo
and edit redo commands or the user can set or
clear the modified flag. If boolean is specified,
sets the modified flag of the widget to boolean.
pathName edit redo
When the -undo option is true, reapplies the last
undone edits provided no other edits were done
since then. Generates an error when the redo stack
is empty. Does nothing when the -undo option is
false.
pathName edit reset
Clears the undo and redo stacks.
pathName edit separator
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
Inserts a separator (boundary) on the undo stack.
Does nothing when the -undo option is false.
pathName edit undo
Undoes the last edit action when the -undo option
is true. An edit action is defined as all the
insert and delete commands that are recorded on
the undo stack in between two separators. Gen-
erates an error when the undo stack is empty.
Does nothing when the -undo option is false.
pathName get index1 ?index2 ...?
Return a range of characters from the text. The return
value will be all the characters in the text starting
with the one whose index is index1 and ending just
before the one whose index is index2 (the character at
index2 will not be returned). If index2 is omitted
then the single character at index1 is returned. If
there are no characters in the specified range (e.g.
index1 is past the end of the file or index2 is less
than or equal to index1) then an empty string is
returned. If the specified range contains embedded
windows, no information about them is included in the
returned string. If multiple index pairs are given,
multiple ranges of text will be returned in a list.
Invalid ranges will not be represented with empty
strings in the list. The ranges are returned in the
order passed to get.
pathName image option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate embedded images.
The behavior of the command depends on the option argu-
ment that follows the tag argument. The following
forms of the command are currently supported:
pathName image cget index option
Returns the value of a configuration option for an
embedded image. Index identifies the embedded
image, and option specifies a particular confi-
guration option, which must be one of the ones
listed in the section EMBEDED IMAGES.
pathName image configure index ?option value ...?
Query or modify the configuration options for an
embedded image. If no option is specified,
returns a list describing all of the available
options for the embedded image at index (see
TkConfigureInfo 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
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
option is specified). If one or more option-value
pairs are specified, then the command modifies the
given option(s) to have the given value(s); in
this case the command returns an empty string.
See EMBEDED IMAGES for information on the options
that are supported.
pathName image create index ?option value ...?
This command creates a new image annotation, which
will appear in the text at the position given by
index. Any number of option-value pairs may be
specified to configure the annotation. Returns a
unique identifier that may be used as an index to
refer to this image. See EMBEDED IMAGES for
information on the options that are supported, and
a description of the identifier returned.
pathName image names
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all
image instances currently embedded in window.
pathName index index
Returns the position corresponding to index in the form
line.char where line is the line number and char is the
character number. Index may have any of the forms
described under INDICES above.
pathName insert index chars ?tagList chars tagList ...?
Inserts all of the chars arguments just before the
character at index. If index refers to the end of the
text (the character after the last newline) then the
new text is inserted just before the last newline
instead. If there is a single chars argument and no
tagList, then the new text will receive any tags that
are present on both the character before and the char-
acter after the insertion point; if a tag is present on
only one of these characters then it will not be
applied to the new text. If tagList is specified then
it consists of a list of tag names; the new characters
will receive all of the tags in this list and no oth-
ers, regardless of the tags present around the inser-
tion point. If multiple chars-tagList argument pairs
are present, they produce the same effect as if a
separate insert widget command had been issued for each
pair, in order. The last tagList argument may be omit-
ted.
pathName mark option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate marks. The exact
behavior of the command depends on the option argument
that follows the mark argument. The following forms of
the command are currently supported:
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
pathName mark gravity markName ?direction?
If direction is not specified, returns left or
right to indicate which of its adjacent characters
markName is attached to. If direction is speci-
fied, it must be left or right; the gravity of
markName is set to the given value.
pathName mark names
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all
the marks that are currently set.
pathName mark next index
Returns the name of the next mark at or after
index. If index is specified in numerical form,
then the search for the next mark begins at that
index. If index is the name of a mark, then the
search for the next mark begins immediately after
that mark. This can still return a mark at the
same position if there are multiple marks at the
same index. These semantics mean that the mark
next operation can be used to step through all the
marks in a text widget in the same order as the
mark information returned by the dump operation.
If a mark has been set to the special end index,
then it appears to be after end with respect to
the mark next operation. An empty string is
returned if there are no marks after index.
pathName mark previous index
Returns the name of the mark at or before index.
If index is specified in numerical form, then the
search for the previous mark begins with the char-
acter just before that index. If index is the
name of a mark, then the search for the next mark
begins immediately before that mark. This can
still return a mark at the same position if there
are multiple marks at the same index. These
semantics mean that the mark previous operation
can be used to step through all the marks in a
text widget in the reverse order as the mark
information returned by the dump operation. An
empty string is returned if there are no marks
before index.
pathName mark set markName index
Sets the mark named markName to a position just
before the character at index. If markName
already exists, it is moved from its old position;
if it doesn't exist, a new mark is created. This
command returns an empty string.
pathName mark unset markName ?markName markName ...?
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
Remove the mark corresponding to each of the mark-
Name arguments. The removed marks will not be
usable in indices and will not be returned by
future calls to ``pathName mark names''. This
command returns an empty string.
pathName scan option args
This command is used to implement scanning on texts.
It has two forms, depending on option:
pathName scan mark x y
Records x and y and the current view in the text
window, for use in conjunction with later scan
dragto commands. Typically this command is asso-
ciated with a mouse button press in the widget.
It returns an empty string.
pathName scan dragto x y
This command computes the difference between its x
and y arguments and the x and y arguments to the
last scan mark command for the widget. It then
adjusts the view by 10 times the difference in
coordinates. This command is typically associated
with mouse motion events in the widget, to produce
the effect of dragging the text at high speed
through the window. The return value is an empty
string.
pathName search ?switches? pattern index ?stopIndex?
Searches the text in pathName starting at index for a
range of characters that matches pattern. If a match
is found, the index of the first character in the match
is returned as result; otherwise an empty string is
returned. One or more of the following switches (or
abbreviations thereof) may be specified to control the
search:
-forwards
The search will proceed forward through the text,
finding the first matching range starting at or
after the position given by index. This is the
default.
-backwards
The search will proceed backward through the text,
finding the matching range closest to index whose
first character is before index.
-exact
Use exact matching: the characters in the match-
ing range must be identical to those in pattern.
This is the default.
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
-regexp
Treat pattern as a regular expression and match it
against the text using the rules for regular
expressions (see the regexp command for details).
-nocase
Ignore case differences between the pattern and
the text.
-count varName
The argument following -count gives the name of a
variable; if a match is found, the number of index
positions between beginning and end of the match-
ing range will be stored in the variable. If
there are no embedded images or windows in the
matching range (and there are no elided characters
if -elide is not given), this is equivalent to the
number of characters matched. In either case, the
range matchIdx to matchIdx ] $count chars will
return the entire matched text.
-elide
Find elided (hidden) text as well. By default only
displayed text is searched.
-- This switch has no effect except to terminate the
list of switches: the next argument will be
treated as pattern even if it starts with -.
The matching range must be entirely within a single
line of text. For regular expression matching the new-
lines are removed from the ends of the lines before
matching: use the $ feature in regular expressions to
match the end of a line. For exact matching the new-
lines are retained. If stopIndex is specified, the
search stops at that index: for forward searches, no
match at or after stopIndex will be considered; for
backward searches, no match earlier in the text than
stopIndex will be considered. If stopIndex is omitted,
the entire text will be searched: when the beginning
or end of the text is reached, the search continues at
the other end until the starting location is reached
again; if stopIndex is specified, no wrap-around will
occur.
pathName see index
Adjusts the view in the window so that the character
given by index is completely visible. If index is
already visible then the command does nothing. If
index is a short distance out of view, the command
adjusts the view just enough to make index visible at
the edge of the window. If index is far out of view,
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
then the command centers index in the window.
pathName tag option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate tags. The exact
behavior of the command depends on the option argument
that follows the tag argument. The following forms of
the command are currently supported:
pathName tag add tagName index1 ?index2 index1 index2 ...?
Associate the tag tagName with all of the charac-
ters starting with index1 and ending just before
index2 (the character at index2 isn't tagged). A
single command may contain any number of
index1-index2 pairs. If the last index2 is omit-
ted then the single character at index1 is tagged.
If there are no characters in the specified range
(e.g. index1 is past the end of the file or index2
is less than or equal to index1) then the command
has no effect.
pathName tag bind tagName ?sequence? ?script?
This command associates script with the tag given
by tagName. Whenever the event sequence given by
sequence occurs for a character that has been
tagged with tagName, the script will be invoked.
This widget command is similar to the bind command
except that it operates on characters in a text
rather than entire widgets. See the bind manual
entry for complete details on the syntax of
sequence and the substitutions performed on script
before invoking it. If all arguments are speci-
fied then a new binding is created, replacing any
existing binding for the same sequence and tagName
(if the first character of script is ``]'' then
script augments an existing binding rather than
replacing it). In this case the return value is
an empty string. If script is omitted then the
command returns the script associated with tagName
and sequence (an error occurs if there is no such
binding). If both script and sequence are omitted
then the command returns a list of all the
sequences for which bindings have been defined for
tagName.
The only events for which bindings may be speci-
fied are those related to the mouse and keyboard
(such as Enter, Leave, ButtonPress, Motion, and
KeyPress) or virtual events. Event bindings for a
text widget use the current mark described under
MARKS above. An Enter event triggers for a tag
when the tag first becomes present on the current
character, and a Leave event triggers for a tag
Tk Last change: 8.4 25
Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
when it ceases to be present on the current char-
acter. Enter and Leave events can happen either
because the current mark moved or because the
character at that position changed. Note that
these events are different than Enter and Leave
events for windows. Mouse and keyboard events are
directed to the current character. If a virtual
event is used in a binding, that binding can
trigger only if the virtual event is defined by an
underlying mouse-related or keyboard-related
event.
It is possible for the current character to have
multiple tags, and for each of them to have a
binding for a particular event sequence. When
this occurs, one binding is invoked for each tag,
in order from lowest-priority to highest priority.
If there are multiple matching bindings for a sin-
gle tag, then the most specific binding is chosen
(see the manual entry for the bind command for
details). continue and break commands within
binding scripts are processed in the same way as
for bindings created with the bind command.
If bindings are created for the widget as a whole
using the bind command, then those bindings will
supplement the tag bindings. The tag bindings
will be invoked first, followed by bindings for
the window as a whole.
pathName tag cget tagName option
This command returns the current value of the
option named option associated with the tag given
by tagName. Option may have any of the values
accepted by the tag configure widget command.
value ...?
pathName tag configure tagName ?option? ?value? ?option
This command is similar to the configure widget
command except that it modifies options associated
with the tag given by tagName instead of modifying
options for the overall text widget. If no option
is specified, the command returns a list describ-
ing all of the available options for tagName (see
TkConfigureInfo 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 option(s) to have the given value(s) in
Tk Last change: 8.4 26
Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
tagName; in this case the command returns an empty
string. See TAGS above for details on the options
available for tags.
pathName tag delete tagName ?tagName ...?
Deletes all tag information for each of the tag-
Name arguments. The command removes the tags from
all characters in the file and also deletes any
other information associated with the tags, such
as bindings and display information. The command
returns an empty string.
pathName tag lower tagName ?belowThis?
Changes the priority of tag tagName so that it is
just lower in priority than the tag whose name is
belowThis. If belowThis is omitted, then
tagName's priority is changed to make it lowest
priority of all tags.
pathName tag names ?index?
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all
the tags that are active at the character position
given by index. If index is omitted, then the
return value will describe all of the tags that
exist for the text (this includes all tags that
have been named in a ``pathName tag'' widget com-
mand but haven't been deleted by a ``pathName tag
delete'' widget command, even if no characters are
currently marked with the tag). The list will be
sorted in order from lowest priority to highest
priority.
pathName tag nextrange tagName index1 ?index2?
This command searches the text for a range of
characters tagged with tagName where the first
character of the range is no earlier than the
character at index1 and no later than the charac-
ter just before index2 (a range starting at index2
will not be considered). If several matching
ranges exist, the first one is chosen. The
command's return value is a list containing two
elements, which are the index of the first charac-
ter of the range and the index of the character
just after the last one in the range. If no
matching range is found then the return value is
an empty string. If index2 is not given then it
defaults to the end of the text.
pathName tag prevrange tagName index1 ?index2?
This command searches the text for a range of
characters tagged with tagName where the first
character of the range is before the character at
Tk Last change: 8.4 27
Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
index1 and no earlier than the character at index2
(a range starting at index2 will be considered).
If several matching ranges exist, the one closest
to index1 is chosen. The command's return value
is a list containing two elements, which are the
index of the first character of the range and the
index of the character just after the last one in
the range. If no matching range is found then the
return value is an empty string. If index2 is not
given then it defaults to the beginning of the
text.
pathName tag raise tagName ?aboveThis?
Changes the priority of tag tagName so that it is
just higher in priority than the tag whose name is
aboveThis. If aboveThis is omitted, then
tagName's priority is changed to make it highest
priority of all tags.
pathName tag ranges tagName
Returns a list describing all of the ranges of
text that have been tagged with tagName. The
first two elements of the list describe the first
tagged range in the text, the next two elements
describe the second range, and so on. The first
element of each pair contains the index of the
first character of the range, and the second ele-
ment of the pair contains the index of the charac-
ter just after the last one in the range. If
there are no characters tagged with tag then an
empty string is returned.
...?
pathName tag remove tagName index1 ?index2 index1 index2
Remove the tag tagName from all of the characters
starting at index1 and ending just before index2
(the character at index2 isn't affected). A sin-
gle command may contain any number of
index1-index2 pairs. If the last index2 is omit-
ted then the single character at index1 is tagged.
If there are no characters in the specified range
(e.g. index1 is past the end of the file or index2
is less than or equal to index1) then the command
has no effect. This command returns an empty
string.
pathName window option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate embedded windows.
The behavior of the command depends on the option argu-
ment that follows the tag argument. The following
forms of the command are currently supported:
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
pathName window cget index option
Returns the value of a configuration option for an
embedded window. Index identifies the embedded
window, and option specifies a particular confi-
guration option, which must be one of the ones
listed in the section EMBEDED WINDOWS.
pathName window configure index ?option value ...?
Query or modify the configuration options for an
embedded window. If no option is specified,
returns a list describing all of the available
options for the embedded window at index (see
TkConfigureInfo 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 option(s) to have the given value(s); in
this case the command returns an empty string.
See EMBEDED WINDOWS for information on the
options that are supported.
pathName window create index ?option value ...?
This command creates a new window annotation,
which will appear in the text at the position
given by index. Any number of option-value pairs
may be specified to configure the annotation. See
EMBEDED WINDOWS for information on the options
that are supported. Returns an empty string.
pathName window names
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all
windows currently embedded in window.
pathName xview option args
This command is used to query and change the horizontal
position of the text in the widget's window. It can
take any of the following forms:
pathName xview
Returns a list containing two elements. Each ele-
ment is a real fraction between 0 and 1; together
they describe the portion of the document's hor-
izontal span that is visible in the window. For
example, if the first element is .2 and the second
element is .6, 20% of the text is off-screen to
the left, the middle 40% is visible in the window,
and 40% of the text is off-screen to the right.
The fractions refer only to the lines that are
actually visible in the window: if the lines in
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
the window are all very short, so that they are
entirely visible, the returned fractions will be 0
and 1, even if there are other lines in the text
that are much wider than the window. These are
the same values passed to scrollbars via the
-xscrollcommand option.
pathName xview moveto fraction
Adjusts the view in the window so that fraction of
the horizontal span of the text is off-screen to
the left. Fraction is a fraction between 0 and 1.
pathName xview scroll number what
This command shifts the view in the window left or
right according to number and what. Number must
be an integer. What must be either units or pages
or an abbreviation of one of these. If what is
units, the view adjusts left or right by number
average-width characters on the display; if it is
pages then the view adjusts by number screenfuls.
If number is negative then characters farther to
the left become visible; if it is positive then
characters farther to the right become visible.
pathName yview ?args?
This command is used to query and change the vertical
position of the text in the widget's window. It can
take any of the following forms:
pathName yview
Returns a list containing two elements, both of
which are real fractions between 0 and 1. The
first element gives the position of the first
character in the top line in the window, relative
to the text as a whole (0.5 means it is halfway
through the text, for example). The second ele-
ment gives the position of the character just
after the last one in the bottom line of the win-
dow, relative to the text as a whole. These are
the same values passed to scrollbars via the
-yscrollcommand option.
pathName yview moveto fraction
Adjusts the view in the window so that the charac-
ter given by fraction appears on the top line of
the window. Fraction is a fraction between 0 and
1; 0 indicates the first character in the text,
0.33 indicates the character one-third the way
through the text, and so on.
pathName yview scroll number what
This command adjust the view in the window up or
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
down according to number and what. Number must be
an integer. What must be either units or pages.
If what is units, the view adjusts up or down by
number lines on the display; if it is pages then
the view adjusts by number screenfuls. If number
is negative then earlier positions in the text
become visible; if it is positive then later
positions in the text become visible.
pathName yview ?-pickplace? index
Changes the view in the widget's window to make
index visible. If the -pickplace option isn't
specified then index will appear at the top of the
window. If -pickplace is specified then the
widget chooses where index appears in the window:
[1] If index is already visible somewhere in the
window then the command does nothing.
[2] If index is only a few lines off-screen above
the window then it will be positioned at the
top of the window.
[3] If index is only a few lines off-screen below
the window then it will be positioned at the
bottom of the window.
[4] Otherwise, index will be centered in the win-
dow.
The -pickplace option has been obsoleted by the
see widget command (see handles both x- and y-
motion to make a location visible, whereas -pick-
place only handles motion in y).
pathName yview number
This command makes the first character on the line
after the one given by number visible at the top
of the window. Number must be an integer. This
command used to be used for scrolling, but now it
is obsolete.
BINDINGS
Tk automatically creates class bindings for texts that give
them the following default behavior. In the descriptions
below, ``word'' is dependent on the value of the
tclwordchars variable. See tclvars(1T).
[1] Clicking mouse button 1 positions the insertion cursor
just before the character underneath the mouse cursor,
sets the input focus to this widget, and clears any
selection in the widget. Dragging with mouse button 1
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
strokes out a selection between the insertion cursor
and the character under the mouse.
[2] Double-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the word
under the mouse and positions the insertion cursor at
the end of the word. Dragging after a double click
will stroke out a selection consisting of whole words.
[3] Triple-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the line
under the mouse and positions the insertion cursor at
the end of the line. Dragging after a triple click
will stroke out a selection consisting of whole lines.
[4] The ends of the selection can be adjusted by dragging
with mouse button 1 while the Shift key is down; this
will adjust the end of the selection that was nearest
to the mouse cursor when button 1 was pressed. If the
button is double-clicked before dragging then the
selection will be adjusted in units of whole words; if
it is triple-clicked then the selection will be
adjusted in units of whole lines.
[5] Clicking mouse button 1 with the Control key down will
reposition the insertion cursor without affecting the
selection.
[6] If any normal printing characters are typed, they are
inserted at the point of the insertion cursor.
[7] The view in the widget can be adjusted by dragging with
mouse button 2. If mouse button 2 is clicked without
moving the mouse, the selection is copied into the text
at the position of the mouse cursor. The Insert key
also inserts the selection, but at the position of the
insertion cursor.
[8] If the mouse is dragged out of the widget while button
1 is pressed, the entry will automatically scroll to
make more text visible (if there is more text off-
screen on the side where the mouse left the window).
[9] The Left and Right keys move the insertion cursor one
character to the left or right; they also clear any
selection in the text. If Left or Right is typed with
the Shift key down, then the insertion cursor moves and
the selection is extended to include the new character.
Control-Left and Control-Right move the insertion cur-
sor by words, and Control-Shift-Left and Control-
Shift-Right move the insertion cursor by words and also
extend the selection. Control-b and Control-f behave
the same as Left and Right, respectively. Meta-b and
Meta-f behave the same as Control-Left and Control-
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
Right, respectively.
[10] The Up and Down keys move the insertion cursor one line
up or down and clear any selection in the text. If Up
or Right is typed with the Shift key down, then the
insertion cursor moves and the selection is extended to
include the new character. Control-Up and Control-Down
move the insertion cursor by paragraphs (groups of
lines separated by blank lines), and Control-Shift-Up
and Control-Shift-Down move the insertion cursor by
paragraphs and also extend the selection. Control-p
and Control-n behave the same as Up and Down, respec-
tively.
[11] The Next and Prior keys move the insertion cursor for-
ward or backwards by one screenful and clear any selec-
tion in the text. If the Shift key is held down while
Next or Prior is typed, then the selection is extended
to include the new character. Control-v moves the view
down one screenful without moving the insertion cursor
or adjusting the selection.
[12] Control-Next and Control-Prior scroll the view right or
left by one page without moving the insertion cursor or
affecting the selection.
[13] Home and Control-a move the insertion cursor to the
beginning of its line and clear any selection in the
widget. Shift-Home moves the insertion cursor to the
beginning of the line and also extends the selection to
that point.
[14] End and Control-e move the insertion cursor to the end
of the line and clear any selection in the widget.
Shift-End moves the cursor to the end of the line and
extends the selection to that point.
[15] Control-Home and Meta-< move the insertion cursor to
the beginning of the text and clear any selection in
the widget. Control-Shift-Home moves the insertion
cursor to the beginning of the text and also extends
the selection to that point.
[16] Control-End and Meta-> move the insertion cursor to the
end of the text and clear any selection in the widget.
Control-Shift-End moves the cursor to the end of the
text and extends the selection to that point.
[17] The Select key and Control-Space set the selection
anchor to the position of the insertion cursor. They
don't affect the current selection. Shift-Select and
Control-Shift-Space adjust the selection to the current
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
position of the insertion cursor, selecting from the
anchor to the insertion cursor if there was not any
selection previously.
[18] Control-/ selects the entire contents of the widget.
[19] Control-\ clears any selection in the widget.
[20] The F16 key (labelled Copy on many Sun workstations) or
Meta-w copies the selection in the widget to the clip-
board, if there is a selection. This action is carried
out by the command tktextCopy.
[21] The F20 key (labelled Cut on many Sun workstations) or
Control-w copies the selection in the widget to the
clipboard and deletes the selection. This action is
carried out by the command tktextCut. If there is no
selection in the widget then these keys have no effect.
[22] The F18 key (labelled Paste on many Sun workstations)
or Control-y inserts the contents of the clipboard at
the position of the insertion cursor. This action is
carried out by the command tktextPaste.
[23] The Delete key deletes the selection, if there is one
in the widget. If there is no selection, it deletes
the character to the right of the insertion cursor.
[24] Backspace and Control-h delete the selection, if there
is one in the widget. If there is no selection, they
delete the character to the left of the insertion cur-
sor.
[25] Control-d deletes the character to the right of the
insertion cursor.
[26] Meta-d deletes the word to the right of the insertion
cursor.
[27] Control-k deletes from the insertion cursor to the end
of its line; if the insertion cursor is already at the
end of a line, then Control-k deletes the newline char-
acter.
[28] Control-o opens a new line by inserting a newline char-
acter in front of the insertion cursor without moving
the insertion cursor.
[29] Meta-backspace and Meta-Delete delete the word to the
left of the insertion cursor.
[30] Control-x deletes whatever is selected in the text
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Tk Built-In Commands text(1T)
widget after copying it to the clipboard.
[31] Control-t reverses the order of the two characters to
the right of the insertion cursor.
[32] Control-z (and Control-underscore on UNIX when
tkstrictMotif is true) undoes the last edit action if
the -undo option is true. Does nothing otherwise.
[33]
Control-Z (or Control-y on Windows) reapplies the last
undone edit action if the -undo option is true. Does
nothing otherwise.
If the widget is disabled using the -state option, then its
view can still be adjusted and text can still be selected,
but no insertion cursor will be displayed and no text modif-
ications will take place.
The behavior of texts can be changed by defining new bind-
ings for individual widgets or by redefining the class bind-
ings.
PERFORMANCE ISUES
Text widgets should run efficiently under a variety of con-
ditions. The text widget uses about 2-3 bytes of main
memory for each byte of text, so texts containing a megabyte
or more should be practical on most workstations. Text is
represented internally with a modified B-tree structure that
makes operations relatively efficient even with large texts.
Tags are included in the B-tree structure in a way that
allows tags to span large ranges or have many disjoint
smaller ranges without loss of efficiency. Marks are also
implemented in a way that allows large numbers of marks. In
most cases it is fine to have large numbers of unique tags,
or a tag that has many distinct ranges.
One performance problem can arise if you have hundreds or
thousands of different tags that all have the following
characteristics: the first and last ranges of each tag are
near the beginning and end of the text, respectively, or a
single tag range covers most of the text widget. The cost
of adding and deleting tags like this is proportional to the
number of other tags with the same properties. In contrast,
there is no problem with having thousands of distinct tags
if their overall ranges are localized and spread uniformly
throughout the text.
Very long text lines can be expensive, especially if they
have many marks and tags within them.
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The display line with the insert cursor is redrawn each time
the cursor blinks, which causes a steady stream of graphics
traffic. Set the insertOffTime attribute to 0 avoid this.
SEE ALSO
entry(1T), scrollbar(1T)
KEYWORDS
text, widget, tkvars
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWTk
Interface Stability Uncommitted
NOTES
Source for Tk is available on http:/opensolaris.org.
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