Is there a way to make the Tkinter text widget read only?
Very easy solution is just to bind any key press to a function that returns "break" like so:
import Tkinter
root = Tkinter.Tk()
readonly = Tkinter.Text(root)
readonly.bind("<Key>", lambda e: "break")
The tcl wiki describes this problem in detail, and lists three possible solutions:
- The Disable/Enable trick described in other answers
- Replace the bindings for the insert/delete events
- Same as (2), but wrap it up in a separate widget.
(2) or (3) would be preferable, however, the solution isn't obvious. However, a worked solution is available on the unpythonic wiki:
from Tkinter import Text
from idlelib.WidgetRedirector import WidgetRedirector
class ReadOnlyText(Text):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
Text.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
self.redirector = WidgetRedirector(self)
self.insert = self.redirector.register("insert", lambda *args, **kw: "break")
self.delete = self.redirector.register("delete", lambda *args, **kw: "break")
text = Text(app, state='disabled', width=44, height=5)
Before and after inserting, change the state, otherwise it won't update
text.configure(state='normal')
text.insert('end', 'Some Text')
text.configure(state='disabled')
You have to change the state of the Text
widget from NORMAL
to DISABLED
after entering text.insert()
or text.bind()
:
text.config(state=DISABLED)