Python Cookbook

Creating Menus with Tkinter

Credit: Luther Blissett

Problem

You want to create a window that has a menu bar at the top.

Solution

Use the Tkinter Menu widget:

import sys
from Tkinter import *

root = Tk(  )

# Insert a menu bar on the main window
menubar = Menu(root)
root.config(menu=menubar)

# Create a menu button labeled "File" that brings up a menu
filemenu = Menu(menubar)
menubar.add_cascade(label='File', menu=filemenu)

# Create entries in the "File" menu
# simulated command functions that we want to invoke from our menus
def doPrint(  ): print 'doPrint'
def doSave(  ): print 'doSave'
filemenu.add_command(label='Print', command=doPrint)
filemenu.add_command(label='Save', command=doSave)
filemenu.add_separator(  )
filemenu.add_command(label='Quit', command=sys.exit)

root.mainloop(  )

Discussion

Menus in Tkinter applications are handled entirely by the Menu widget. As shown in the recipe, you use Menu both for the top-level menu bar (which you add to a top-level window as its menu configuration setting) and for cascading menus (which you add to the menu bar, or to other menus, with the add_cascade method).

A menu can have several kinds of entries. A cascade entry pops up a submenu when the user selects it, and is added with add_cascade. A command entry calls a function when the user selects it, and is added with add_command. A separator visually separates other entries, and is added with add_separator.

A checkbutton entry is added with add_checkbutton and has an associated Tkinter IntVar, with ...