Programming Python, Second Edition

Message and Entry

The Message and Entry widgets allow for display and input of simple text. Both are essentially functional subsets of the Text widget we’ll meet later -- Text can do everything Message and Entry can, but not vice versa.

Message

The Message widget is simply a place to display text. Although the standard showinfo dialog we met earlier is perhaps a better way to display pop-up messages, Message splits up long strings automatically and flexibly, and can be embedded inside container widgets anytime you need to add some read-only text to a display. Moreover, this widget sports over a dozen configuration options that let you customize its appearance. Example 7-16 and Figure 7-21 illustrate Message basics; see a Tk or Tkinter reference for other options it supports.

Example 7-16. PP2E\Gui\tour\message.py

from Tkinter import *
msg = Message(text="Oh by the way, which one's Pink?")
msg.config(bg='pink', font=('times', 16, 'italic'))
msg.pack()
mainloop()

Figure 7-21. A Message widget at work

Entry

The Entry widget is a simple, single-line text input field. It is typically used for input fields in form-like dialogs, and anywhere else you need the user to type a value into a field of a larger display. Entry also supports advanced concepts such as scrolling, key bindings for editing, and text selections, but it’s simple to use in practice. Example 7-17 builds the input ...