How to Set Vertical Scrollbar for Text Widget in Tkinter Python

Set Vertical Scrollbar for Text Widget in Tkinter Python

In Tkinter, a Scrollbar widget can be used to add scrolling capability to other widgets, such as the Text widget. By default, a Text widget does not include scrollbars, so we need to attach a vertical scrollbar manually.

To add a vertical scrollbar to a Text widget, we use the Scrollbar class and link it using the yscrollcommand parameter.

In this tutorial, we will explore different ways to add a vertical scrollbar to a Tkinter Text Widget.

Examples

1. Adding a Vertical Scrollbar to a Text Widget

In this example, we will create a Text widget and attach a vertical scrollbar to it.

import tkinter as tk

# Create the main window
root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Tkinter Text Scrollbar Example - tutorialkart.com")
root.geometry("400x200")

# Create a Text widget
text_widget = tk.Text(root, wrap="word", height=5, width=40)

# Create a vertical scrollbar
scrollbar = tk.Scrollbar(root, orient="vertical", command=text_widget.yview)

# Link the scrollbar to the Text widget
text_widget.config(yscrollcommand=scrollbar.set)

# Pack widgets
text_widget.pack(side="left", fill="both", expand=True)
scrollbar.pack(side="right", fill="y")

# Insert sample text
text_widget.insert("1.0", "This is an example of a Text widget with a vertical scrollbar.\n" * 10)

# Run the main loop
root.mainloop()

Output in Windows:

2. Adding Scrollbar Inside a Frame for Text Widget

In this example, we will place the Text widget and its scrollbar inside a Frame for better layout control.

import tkinter as tk

# Create the main window
root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Tkinter Text Scrollbar in Frame - tutorialkart.com")
root.geometry("400x200")

# Create a Frame to hold the Text widget and Scrollbar
frame = tk.Frame(root)
frame.pack(expand=True, fill="both", padx=10, pady=10)

# Create a Text widget
text_widget = tk.Text(frame, wrap="word", height=5, width=40)

# Create a vertical scrollbar
scrollbar = tk.Scrollbar(frame, orient="vertical", command=text_widget.yview)

# Link the scrollbar to the Text widget
text_widget.config(yscrollcommand=scrollbar.set)

# Place widgets inside the frame
text_widget.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="nsew")
scrollbar.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky="ns")

# Configure grid resizing
frame.columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
frame.rowconfigure(0, weight=1)

# Insert sample text
text_widget.insert("1.0", "This is a Text widget inside a Frame with a scrollbar.\n" * 10)

# Run the main loop
root.mainloop()

Output in Windows:

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored how to add a vertical scrollbar to a Tkinter Text widget. We covered:

• How to link a Scrollbar to a Text widget using the yscrollcommand option.
• How to structure the Text widget and scrollbar inside a Frame for better layout management.