How to disable input to a Text widget but allow programatic input?

Question

How would i go about locking a Text widget so that the user can only select and copy text out of it, but i would still be able to insert text into the Text

Answer 1

Have you tried simply disabling the text widget?

text_widget.configure(state="disabled")

On some platforms, you also need to add a binding on <1> to give the focus to the widget, otherwise the highlighting for copy doesn't appear:

text_widget.bind("<1>", lambda event: text_widget.focus_set())

If you disable the widget, to insert programatically you simply need to

1. Change the state of the widget to NORMAL
2. Insert the text, and then
3. Change the state back to DISABLED

As long as you don't call update in the middle of that then there's no way for the user to be able to enter anything interactively.

Answer 2

Sorry I'm late to the party but I found this page looking for the same solution as you.

I found that if you "disable" the Text widget by default and then "normal" it at the beginning of a function that gives it input and "disable" it again at the end of the function.

def __init__():
    self.output_box = Text(fourth_frame, width=160, height=25, background="black", foreground="white")
    self.output_box.configure(state="disabled")

def somefunction():
    self.output_box.configure(state="normal")
    (some function goes here)
    self.output_box.configure(state="disable")

Answer 3

I stumbled upon the state="normal"/state="disabled" solution as well, however then you are unable to select and copy text out of it. Finally I found the solution below from: Is there a way to make the Tkinter text widget read only?, and this solution allows you to select and copy text as well as follow hyperlinks.

import Tkinter

root = Tkinter.Tk() 
readonly = Tkinter.Text(root)
readonly.bind("<Key>", lambda e: "break")