Autohiding Scrollbars using Pythontkinter (original) (raw)

Autohiding Scrollbars using Python-tkinter

Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025

Before moving on to the topic lets see what is Python Tkinter. So, we all know that Python has different options for creating GUI(s) and tkinter is one of them. It is the standard GUI library for Python. And it makes the creation of GUI applications very quick still simple when python is merged with it. It also gives a very effective object-oriented interface to the Tk GUI toolkit.Note: For more information, refer to Python GUI – tkinter

Widgets in tkinter

Moreover, Tkinter enables number of controls like labels, text boxes, list boxes, buttons, scrollbars etc, which are used in a GUI applications. These controls are known as widgets.

Geometry management methods of tkinter

These methods are used to organize widgets across parents widget area. Moreover, these methods can be accessed by all the tkinter widgets. There are three geometry management methods namely pack(), grid(), and place(). All these methods have different roles.**Now, lets discuss about the topic Autohiding Scrollbars using Python-tkinter.**In this topic, we will see how auto-hiding scrollbars are created using tkinter in Python. So, firstly lets see the meaning of auto hiding scrollbars below:

Auto-hiding Scrollbars

When a scrollbar hides itself if its not required i.e, it is not visible when its not needed then that type of scrollbar is known as Auto-hiding Scrollbar. In Python Autohiding scrollbars can be used with Listbox and Text widgets. It can be implemented using python tkinter with the help of some geometry management methods. Below examples illustrate the use of Autohiding Scrollbars using Python-tkinter:Example 1:

Python `

Python program to illustrate the usage of

autohiding scrollbars using tkinter

Importing tkinter

from tkinter import *

Creating class AutoScrollbar

class AutoScrollbar(Scrollbar):

# Defining set method with all 
# its parameter
def set(self, low, high):
     
    if float(low) <= 0.0 and float(high) >= 1.0:
         
        # Using grid_remove
        self.tk.call("grid", "remove", self)
    else:
        self.grid()
    Scrollbar.set(self, low, high)
 
# Defining pack method
def pack(self, **kw):
     
    # If pack is used it throws an error
    raise (TclError,"pack cannot be used with \
    this widget")
 
# Defining place method
def place(self, **kw):
     
    # If place is used it throws an error
    raise (TclError, "place cannot be used  with \
    this widget")

creating tkinter window

root = Tk()

Defining vertical scrollbar

verscrollbar = AutoScrollbar(root)

Calling grid method with all its

parameter w.r.t vertical scrollbar

verscrollbar.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky=N+S)

Defining horizontal scrollbar

horiscrollbar = AutoScrollbar(root, orient=HORIZONTAL)

Calling grid method with all its

parameter w.r.t horizontal scrollbar

horiscrollbar.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky=E+W)

Creating scrolled canvas

canvas = Canvas(root, yscrollcommand=verscrollbar.set, xscrollcommand=horiscrollbar.set)

canvas.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky=N+S+E+W)

verscrollbar.config(command=canvas.yview) horiscrollbar.config(command=canvas.xview)

Making the canvas expandable

root.grid_rowconfigure(0, weight=1) root.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)

creating canvas contents

frame = Frame(canvas) frame.rowconfigure(1, weight=1) frame.columnconfigure(1, weight=1)

Defining number of rows and columns

rows = 20 for i in range(1,rows): for j in range(1,9): button = Button(frame, padx=8, pady=8, text="[%d,%d]" % (i,j)) button.grid(row=i, column=j, sticky='news')

Creating canvas window

canvas.create_window(0, 0, anchor=NW, window=frame)

Calling update_idletasks method

frame.update_idletasks()

Configuring canvas

canvas.config(scrollregion=canvas.bbox("all"))

Calling mainloop method

root.mainloop()

`

Output: