The Tkinter Text Class

A display/editor widget for formatted text.

master

Parent widget.

**options

Widget options. See the description of the config method for a list of available options.

Calculates the bounding box for the given character.

This method only works if the text widget is updated. To make sure this is the case, you can call the update_idletasks method first.

index

Character index.

Returns:

A 4-tuple (x, y, width, height), or None, if the character is not visible.

Compares two indexes. The op argument is one of “<”, “<=”, “==”, “>=”, “>”, or “!=” (Python’s “<>” syntax is not supported).

index1

First index.

op

Operator (see above).

index2

Second index.

Returns:

A true value if the condition is true.

Modifies one or more widget options. If no options are given, the method returns a dictionary containing all current option values.

**options

Widget options.

autoseparators=

Default is 1. (autoSeparators/AutoSeparators)

background=

Default value is system specific. (the database name is background, the class is Background)

bg=

Same as background.

borderwidth=

Default value is 2. (borderWidth/BorderWidth)

bd=

Same as borderwidth.

cursor=

Default value is “xterm”. (cursor/Cursor)

exportselection=

Default value is 1. (exportSelection/ExportSelection)

font=

Default value is system specific. (font/Font)

foreground=

Default value is system specific. (foreground/Foreground)

fg=

Same as foreground.

height=

Default value is 24. (height/Height)

highlightbackground=

Default value is system specific. (highlightBackground/HighlightBackground)

highlightcolor=

Default value is system specific. (highlightColor/HighlightColor)

highlightthickness=

Default value is 0. (highlightThickness/HighlightThickness)

insertbackground=

Default value is system specific. (insertBackground/Foreground)

insertborderwidth=

Default value is 0. (insertBorderWidth/BorderWidth)

insertofftime=

Default value is 300. (insertOffTime/OffTime)

insertontime=

Default value is 600. (insertOnTime/OnTime)

insertwidth=

Default value is 2. (insertWidth/InsertWidth)

maxundo=

Default is 0. (maxUndo/MaxUndo)

padx=

Default value is 1. (padX/Pad)

pady=

Default value is 1. (padY/Pad)

relief=

Default value is SUNKEN. (relief/Relief)

selectbackground=

Default value is system specific. (selectBackground/Foreground)

selectborderwidth=

Default value is 0. (selectBorderWidth/BorderWidth)

selectforeground=

Default value is system specific. (selectForeground/Background)

setgrid=

Default value is 0. (setGrid/SetGrid)

spacing1=

Default value is 0. (spacing1/Spacing)

spacing2=

Default value is 0. (spacing2/Spacing)

spacing3=

Default value is 0. (spacing3/Spacing)

state=

Default value is NORMAL. (state/State)

tabs=

No default value. (tabs/Tabs)

takefocus=

No default value. (takeFocus/TakeFocus)

undo=

Default is 0. (undo/Undo)

width=

Default value is 80. (width/Width)

wrap=

Default value is CHAR. (wrap/Wrap)

xscrollcommand=

No default value. (xScrollCommand/ScrollCommand)

yscrollcommand=

No default value. (yScrollCommand/ScrollCommand)

Enables or disables debugging.

boolean

Deletes the character (or embedded object) at the given position, or all text in the given range. Any marks within the range are moved to the beginning of the range.

start

Start index.

end

End index. If omitted, only one character is deleted.

Calculates the bounding box for the line containing the given character.

This method only works if the text widget is updated. To make sure this is the case, you can call the update_idletasks method first.

index

Character index.

Returns:

A 5-tuple: (x, y, width, height, offset). The last tuple member is the offset from the top of the line to the baseline. If the line is not visible, this method returns None.

Dumps the widget contents.

The edit_modified method.

The edit_redo method.

The edit_reset method.

The edit_separator method.

The edit_undo method.

Returns the character at the given position, or all text in the given range.

start

Start position.

end

End position. If omitted, only one character is returned.

Returns the current value of the given option. If there’s no image on the given position, this method raises a TclError exception. Not implemented in Python 1.5.2 and earlier.

index

Index specifier.

option

Image option.

Returns:

Option value.

Modifies one or more image options. If there’s no image on the given position, this method raises a TclError exception. Not implemented in Python 1.5.2 and earlier.

index

Index specifier.

**options

Image options.

align=

image=

An image object. This must be a PhotoImage or BitmapImage object, or any compatible object.

name=

padx=

pady=

Inserts an image at the given position. The image must be a a Tkinter PhotoImage or BitmapImage instance (or an instance of the corresponding PIL classes).

This method doesn’t work with Tk versions before 8.0. As a workaround, you can put the image in a Label widget, and use window_create to insert the label widget.

index

Index specifier.

**options

Image options. See image_config for a complete list.

Finds the names of all images embedded in the text widget. Tkinter doesn’t provide a way to get the corresponding PhotoImage or BitmapImage objects, but you can keep track of those yourself using a dictionary (using str(image) as the key).

Returns:

A tuple containing image names.

Returns the “line.column” index corresponding to the given index.

index

Index specifier.

Returns:

The corresponding row/column, given as a “line.column” string.

Inserts text at the given position. The index is typically INSERT or END. If you provide one or more tags, they are attached to the new text.

If you insert text on a mark, the mark is moved according to its gravity setting.

index

Where to insert the text.

text

The text to insert.

*tags

Optional tags to attach to the text.

Sets the gravity for the given mark. The gravity setting controls how to move the mark if text is inserted exactly on the mark. If LEFT, the mark is not moved if text is inserted at the mark (that is, the text is inserted just after the mark). If RIGHT, the mark is moved to the right end of the text (that is, the text is inserted just before the mark). The default gravity setting is RIGHT.

name

The name of the mark.

direction

The gravity setting (LEFT or RIGHT). If this argument is omitted, the method returns the current gravity setting.

Returns:

The current gravity setting, if direction was omitted.

Finds the names of all marks used in the widget. This includes the INSERT and CURRENT marks (but not END, which is a special index, not a mark).

Returns:

A tuple containing mark names.

The mark_next method.

index

The mark_previous method.

index

Moves the mark to the given position. If the mark doesn’t exist, it is created (with gravity set to RIGHT). You also use this method to move the predefined INSERT and CURRENT marks.

name

Mark name.

index

New position.

Removes the given mark from the widget. You cannot remove the builtin INSERT and CURRENT marks.

name

Mark name.

Scrolls the widget contents. The text view is moved 10 times the distance between the scanning anchor and the new position.

x

y

Sets the scanning anchor. This anchor is used for fast scrolling.

x

y

Searches for text strings or regular expressions.

pattern

index

stopindex

forwards

backwards

exact

regexp

nocase

count

Makes sure a given position is visible. If the index isn’t visible, scroll the view as necessary.

index

Index specifier.

The tag_add method.

tagName

index1

*args

The tag_bind method.

tagName

sequence

func

add

The tag_cget method.

tagName

option

The tag_config method.

tagName

cnf

**kw

The tag_configure method.

tagName

cnf

**kw

The tag_delete method.

*tagNames

The tag_lower method.

tagName

belowThis

The tag_names method.

index

The tag_nextrange method.

tagName

index1

index2

The tag_prevrange method.

tagName

index1

index2

The tag_raise method.

tagName

aboveThis

The tag_ranges method.

tagName

The tag_remove method.

tagName

index1

index2

The tag_unbind method.

tagName

sequence

funcid

Returns the current value of the given window option. If there’s no window on the given position, this method raises a TclError exception.

index

option

Modifies one or more window options. If there’s no window on the given position, this method raises a TclError exception.

index

**options

align=

create=

padx=

pady=

stretch=

window=

Window object.

Same as window_config.

Inserts a widget at the given position. You can either create the widget (which should be a child of the text widget itself) first, and insert it using the window option, or provide a create callback which is called when the window is first displayed.

index

Index specifier.

**options

Window options. See window_config for a complete list.

Returns a tuple containing all windows embedded in the text widget. In 1.5.2 and earlier, this method returns the names of the widgets, rather than the widget instances.

Here’s how to convert the names to a list of widget instances in a portable fashion:

windows = text.window_names()
try:
    windows = map(text.nametowidget, windows)
except TclError:
    pass

Returns:

A list of window names.

The xview method.

*what

The xview_moveto method.

fraction

The xview_scroll method.

number

what

The yview method.

*what

The yview_moveto method.

fraction

The yview_pickplace method.

*what

The yview_scroll method.

number

what