Basic Widgets

This chapter introduces the basic Tk widgets that you'll find in just about any user interface: frames, labels, buttons, checkbuttons, radiobuttons, entries, and comboboxes. By the end, you'll know how to use all the widgets you'd ever need for a typical fill-in-the-form type of user interface.

You'll find it easiest to read this chapter (and those following that discuss more widgets) in order. Because there is so much commonality between many widgets, we'll introduce certain concepts when describing one widget that will also apply to a widget we describe later. Rather than going over the same ground multiple times, we'll refer back to when the concept was first introduced.

At each widget is introduced, we'll refer to the widget roundup page for the specific widget, as well as the Tk reference manual page. As a reminder, this tutorial highlights the most useful parts of Tk and how to use them to build effective modern user interfaces. The reference documentation, which details everything that can be done in Tk, serves a very different purpose.