How do I display tooltips in Tkinter?

Question

Tooltips are those little bits of text that popup when the mouse hovers over a widget for a certain duration of time.

How can I add a tooltip message to my tkinter Python application?

Answer 1

I tried the code in the blog post mentioned by ars, and also tried the code from the IDLE lib.

While both worked, I didn't like how the tooltip from IDLE was limited in size (had to manually enter new lines as separate lists) , and how the tips appeared immediately in the code form the blog post.

So I made a hybrid between the two. It lets you specify a wrap length and hover time, with no restriction on each:

""" tk_ToolTip_class101.py gives a Tkinter widget a tooltip as the mouse is above the widget tested with Python27 and Python34  by  vegaseat  09sep2014 www.daniweb.com/programming/software-development/code/484591/a-tooltip-class-for-tkinter  Modified to include a delay time by Victor Zaccardo, 25mar16 """  try:     # for Python2     import Tkinter as tk except ImportError:     # for Python3     import tkinter as tk  class CreateToolTip(object):     """     create a tooltip for a given widget     """     def __init__(self, widget, text='widget info'):         self.waittime = 500     #miliseconds         self.wraplength = 180   #pixels         self.widget = widget         self.text = text         self.widget.bind("<Enter>", self.enter)         self.widget.bind("<Leave>", self.leave)         self.widget.bind("<ButtonPress>", self.leave)         self.id = None         self.tw = None      def enter(self, event=None):         self.schedule()      def leave(self, event=None):         self.unschedule()         self.hidetip()      def schedule(self):         self.unschedule()         self.id = self.widget.after(self.waittime, self.showtip)      def unschedule(self):         id = self.id         self.id = None         if id:             self.widget.after_cancel(id)      def showtip(self, event=None):         x = y = 0         x, y, cx, cy = self.widget.bbox("insert")         x += self.widget.winfo_rootx() + 25         y += self.widget.winfo_rooty() + 20         # creates a toplevel window         self.tw = tk.Toplevel(self.widget)         # Leaves only the label and removes the app window         self.tw.wm_overrideredirect(True)         self.tw.wm_geometry("+%d+%d" % (x, y))         label = tk.Label(self.tw, text=self.text, justify='left',                        background="#ffffff", relief='solid', borderwidth=1,                        wraplength = self.wraplength)         label.pack(ipadx=1)      def hidetip(self):         tw = self.tw         self.tw= None         if tw:             tw.destroy()  # testing ... if __name__ == '__main__':     root = tk.Tk()     btn1 = tk.Button(root, text="button 1")     btn1.pack(padx=10, pady=5)     button1_ttp = CreateToolTip(btn1, \    'Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, '    'consectetur, adipisci velit. Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum '    'quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit. Neque porro quisquam '    'est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit.')      btn2 = tk.Button(root, text="button 2")     btn2.pack(padx=10, pady=5)     button2_ttp = CreateToolTip(btn2, \     "First thing's first, I'm the realest. Drop this and let the whole world "     "feel it. And I'm still in the Murda Bizness. I could hold you down, like "     "I'm givin' lessons in  physics. You should want a bad Vic like this.")     root.mainloop() 

Screenshot:

Answer 2

The Pmw.Balloon class from the Pmw toolkit for Tkinter will draw tool tips.

Also take a look at this blog post, which adapts some code from IDLE used for displaying tool tips with Tkinter.