Develop Reference

Adaptive resizing for a tkinter Text widget

I have been attempting to create a application that contains two Text() widgets, both of which can dynamically resize when the window size is changed. Before I have always used the root.pack() manager, with fill='both' and expand=True.
While this works for LabelFrames and most other widgets, it does not work when a Text widget is resized smaller then its original dimensions. Is there a way to have dynamically resizing Text widgets?
Ex.
import tkinter as tk
window = tk.Tk()
editor = tk.Text(bg='red')
editor.pack(side='top',fill='both',expand=True)
output = tk.Text(bg='green')
output.pack(side='top',fill='both',expand=True)
window.mainloop()

Tkinter will try to honor the requested size of a text widget. Since you didn't specify a size, the text widget will request a size of 80x24. When you resize the window smaller, pack tries to make room for everything at its requested size, and it does so in stacking order.
As the window shrinks, there's room for all of the first text widget but not enough for both. Because there's not enough room, it has to subtract space from the remaining widgets. Thus, it starts chopping off the last text widget.
To combat this, you can set the requested size of the text widgets to a small value that will fit in almost any window size, and then force them to grow by setting the size of the window as a whole. This way, pack will first allocate enough space for each small window, and then expand them equally when there's extra space.
For example:
import tkinter as tk
window = tk.Tk()
window.geometry("400x400")
editor = tk.Text(bg='red', width=1, height=1)
output = tk.Text(bg='green', width=1, height=1)
editor.pack(side='top',fill='both',expand=True)
output.pack(side='top',fill='both',expand=True)
window.mainloop()
The other solution is to use grid which lets you specify that rows and columns should be of uniform size.
import tkinter as tk
window = tk.Tk()
editor = tk.Text(bg='red')
output = tk.Text(bg='green')
editor.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="nsew")
output.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky="nsew")
window.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
window.grid_rowconfigure((0,1), weight=1, uniform=1)
window.mainloop()

Tkinter grids inside grids?

I would really appreciate some help with figuring out grid geometry manager.
Here is what I want to build.
I was thinking of using grid but I cannot find any good tutorials that would clearly
explain how to work with it.
There are lots of tutorials but mostly all are either very simple or really outdated.
I am not sure how to build what is shown in the picture using only grid because all
elements are nested inside each other and each element is supposed to hold more elements inside it.
It's not so hard to arrange outermost widgets using grid. I just place Toolbar into 0th row,
then outermost PanedWidow (green) into 1st row, and then Status Bar into 2nd row.
After that I need to arrange things inside green PanedWindow.
I place another PanedWindow (pink) into the right pane of the green PanedWindow and then
stick a Notebook into it's top pane.
Now, I need to add more widgets to these inner panes. For instance. I am going to add
some buttons to the bottom pane of the pink PanedWindow. And that's where I run into problems.
If I try to use pack() to arrange things inside these innermost panes, Python screams at me for
using more than one geometry manager.
But when I think about how to accomplish this with grid, I just can't find a way to subdivide
innermost panes into smaller grids.
Can there be grids inside Widgets which have been acted upon by an outer grid?

When I see widgets that take up the full width or full height of an area I usually use pack since since it's specifically designed to lay objects along a side of an empty cavity. You can use grid but it requires extra code since you have to both add the widget and configure the rows and columns. With pack all you have to do is add the widgets.
For example, it's clear you want a statusbar along the bottom, and a toolbar along the time, and a paned widget in-between. So, start with that, as in the following example:
import tkinter as tk
root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry("600x400")
toolbar = tk.Frame(root, background="#d5e8d4", height=40)
statusbar = tk.Frame(root, background="#e3e3e3", height=20)
main = tk.PanedWindow(root, background="#99fb99")
toolbar.pack(side="top", fill="x")
statusbar.pack(side="bottom", fill="x")
main.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
root.mainloop()
Note: widths, heights, and colors are added to the frame for illustrative purposes since otherwise, an empty frame would have a size of 1x1. Once you add widgets inside a frame you can remove the width and height options.
You say the right will have a paned window, so add that on the right. We'll use a normal frame on the left.
left_pane = tk.Frame(main, background="#99fb99", width=100)
right_pane = tk.PanedWindow(main, background="#99fb99", width=200)
main.add(left_pane)
main.add(right_pane)
Next, add the two panes to the right. So that I can show colors with as little code as possible I'll use a frame on the top instead of a notebook:
notebook = tk.Frame(right_pane, background="#99ceff", height=70)
bottom_right = tk.Frame(right_pane, background="#ffe6cd", height=50)
right_pane.add(notebook)
right_pane.add(bottom_right)
With all that being said, you can use grid if you want. The trick is to use intermediate frames, since the layout in any widget is independent of the layout in parent or child widgets.
All you need to do is remove the first three calls to pack and replace it with these five lines:
root.grid_rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
root.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
toolbar.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="ew")
main.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky="nsew")
statusbar.grid(row=2, column=0, sticky="ew")
Since the other widgets are children of paned widgets, there's nothing else to do. Any widgets you add to each pane have their own independent layout area, so you can use grid, pack, or place inside each frame.
To illustrate that point, I'll use grid to add several rows and columns of squares:
for row in range(6):
for column in range(30):
f = tk.Frame(bottom_right, background="white",
bd=2, relief="raised", width=10, height=10)
f.grid(row=row, column=column)

I found a post that's around two years old, which might be a little too old for your uses, but it has some information on nesting grids in Tkinter. It recommends using frames to nest the grids, essentially having children within children of a frame. Within these frames, you can place objects.

Python - is there any way to expand the resolution ratio for existing Tkinter Tk() and Toplevel() widget? (zooming-in)

I just made an app using python and tkinter widgets.
There are Labels, Frames, Buttons, etc in the Tk and Toplevel widgets.
However, it includes thousands of codes and its really annoying to resize every widgets when I support multiple resolutions.
Is there any way to expand the resolution ratio for existing Tkinter Tk() and Toplevel() widget and their child widgets? (zooming-in)
If not, what would be the best approach to support multiple resolutions of a python app with the same ratio?
Any help would be much appreciated, sorry for bad English.

Yes, this is possible however it depends on the geometry manager you have used in your program.
For the .pack() method (which is arguably the simplest geometry method for "intelligent" GUI designs) you can use a range of attributes on when you declare .pack() on the widget. These attributes include (but are not limited to) fill, expand, anchor, padx, pady, etc.
The below shows an example of a set of three buttons which will automatically expand to fit the window if it changes or is initialised to a different size than was used during development.
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
btn1 = Button(root, text="btn1")
btn2 = Button(root, text="btn2")
btn3 = Button(root, text="btn3")
btn1.pack(fill="both", expand=True)
btn2.pack(fill="both", expand=True)
btn3.pack(fill="both", expand=True)
root.mainloop()
For the .grid() method you will need to make use of the functions Grid.columnconfigure() and Grid.rowconfigure. Both of these have the attribute weight which determines which rows and columns should be given priority for assignment of extra space if more becomes available in the window. Setting all rows and columns to have a weight of 1 means they will all be given space equally. You will also need to use the sticky attribute when declaring .grid() on the widgets.
The below shows an example of a set of three buttons which will automatically expand to fit the window if it changes or is initialised to a different size than was used during development.
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
for column in range(3):
Grid.columnconfigure(root, column, weight=1)
for row in range(1):
Grid.rowconfigure(root, row, weight=1)
btn1 = Button(root, text="btn1")
btn2 = Button(root, text="btn2")
btn3 = Button(root, text="btn3")
btn1.grid(column=0, row=0, sticky=N+S+E+W)
btn2.grid(column=1, row=0, sticky=N+S+E+W)
btn3.grid(column=2, row=0, sticky=N+S+E+W)
root.mainloop()
Using .place() would be a lot more difficult, you would need to have a function setup which would trigger on every window resize event which would calculate the size that the buttons need to expand to.
This would look something like the below:
from tkinter import *
class App:
def __init__(self, root):
self.root = root
self.button = Button(self.root, text="Button")
self.button.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor="center")
self.root.bind("<Configure>", self.resize)
def resize(self, *args):
self.button.configure(width=self.root.winfo_width(), height=self.root.winfo_height())
root = Tk()
App(root)
root.mainloop()
Subjectively speaking, .pack() tends to be easier, however this all comes down to how much effort you're willing to put in to implement this with your current program.

Can't comment so I add a short tip to the detailed Ethan answer. You can design most of the GUIs in tkinter with either pack, grid or a combination of both (by placing frames on a window with one of them, and using either grid or pack inside of each frame, to "place" the widgets). You can tune the configurations for proper location and size when the window resizes. Keep placer use for special cases (like overlaying some widget on the top of others)

Expand Text widget to fill the entire parent Frame in Tkinter

I got this Text widget, and I'd like for it to expand and fill its entire parent, using the Grid geometry manager.
According to the examples I've seen, this sample program should work, alas it doesn't, when expanding the window, the contents are not resizing.
from Tkinter import *
root = Tk()
input_text_area = Text(root)
input_text_area.grid(row=1, column=0, columnspan=4, sticky=W+E)
input_text_area.configure(background='#4D4D4D')
root.mainloop()
Any help is appreciated
For what it's worth, I'm running in Python 2.7 (latest 2.x version), and coding in PyCharm, though I don't think the IDE is relevant.

When using grid, any extra space in the parent is allocated proportionate to the "weight" of a row and/or a column (ie: a column with a weight of 2 gets twice as much of the space as one with a weight of 1). By default, rows and columns have a weight of 0 (zero), meaning no extra space is given to them.
You need to give the column that the widget is in a non-zero weight, so that any extra space when the window grows is allocated to that column.
root.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
You'll also need to specify a weight for the row, and a sticky value of N+S+E+W if you want it to grow in all directions.

Since your window only contains one widget and you want this widget to fill the entire window, it would be easier to use the pack geometry manager instead of grid
input_text_area.pack(expand=True, fill='both')
expand=True tells Tkinter to allow the widget to expand to fill any extra space in the geometry master. fill='both' enables the widget to expand both horizontally and vertically.

from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
input_text_area = Text(root)
input_text_area.grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=4, sticky=N+S+W+E)
input_text_area.configure(background='#4D4D4D')
root.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
root.grid_rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
root.mainloop()
not sure if this is what you want.
but this fills the entire screen.

Stretching frames using grid layout in Python Tkinter

I'm trying to get stretching to work using Python 2.6.7 with Tkinter. I'd expect the below code to stretch the first button to the width of the second, but both buttons are only as wide as they need to be to fit their text.
#!/usr/bin/python
from Tkinter import *
win = Frame()
win.grid(sticky=N+S+E+W)
inner_a = Frame(win)
inner_a.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky=N+E+W)
inner_b = Frame(win)
inner_b.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky=S+E+W)
Button(inner_a, text='1').grid(row=0, column=0, sticky=E+W)
Button(inner_b, text='Some long text').grid(row=0, column=0, sticky=E+W)
win.mainloop()
By my understanding, the single column in win will expand to the width of the largest thing it contains, ie the width of inner_b, and then the width of inner_a, and thence of the first button, will be that of the second button.
Actually, what happens is the below; the first button is only wide enough to contain "1", not as wide as the second button.
What do I need to do to get the first button to expand the size of the second?

If you want widgets to line up in a grid, the first thing to do is make sure they have the same parent. This isn't strictly necessary if all the widgets are the same size or you are only using one column.
Another thing you need to do is give your column a weight. What is happening in your code is that the widget is expanding to fill the column, but the column isn't expanding to fill the master. If you give it a weight of 1 it will. You ned to do something like inner_a.columnconfigure(1, weight=1), and then do likewise for inner_b.