Mouse Events binding to parent window or widgets in Tkinter

`<Button-1>`	Mouse Left button click
`<Button-2>`	Mouse center button click
`<Button-3>`	Mouse Right button click
`<B1-Motion>`	Mouse Left button Press and move
`<ButtonRelease-1>`	Mouse Left button release, ButtonRelease-2 for Middle and 3 for right button.
`<Double-Button-1>`	Left Mouse key is double clicked.
`<Enter>`	Mouse Entry over a widget
`<Leave>`	Mouse Leave a widget
`<MouseWheel>`	Mouse Wheel Up or Down rotation

Tkinter binding Mouse button wheel and movement events capturing and triggering callback functions

event.x event.y

Based on any event we can read the x, y coordinates of the position by reading event.x and event.y values. Here is a function which displays the x and y coordinates inside a Label. We used config() to update the text option of the Label.

str() is used to convert integer to string.

def my_callback(event):
     l1.config(text='Clicked at : '+ str(event.x) +","+ str(event.y))

Bind Events

We can bind various mouse events of parent window ( or any widget ) and trigger the callback function. Here is a sample of using left mouse button click to call my_callback() function.

my_w.bind('<Button-1>',my_callback) #Mouse Left button  click

This is same as using <ButtonPress-1> <1> to bind Mouse left button click.
Drag and Drop using Mouse left button press.

Using Lambda

We can directly use lambda to config the text property of Label.

l1.bind('<Enter>',lambda e:l1.config(text='Welcome'))

Full code with all mouse events are here

import tkinter as tk # Python 3
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("615x400") 
def my_callback(event):
     l1.config(text='Clicked at : '+ str(event.x) +","+ str(event.y))

l1=tk.Label(my_w,text='to Display',bg='yellow',font=('Times',26,'normal'))
l1.grid(row=0,column=1,padx=10,pady=10)

my_w.bind('<Button-1>',my_callback) # Mouse Left button  click <ButtonPress-1><1>

#my_w.bind('<Button-2>',my_callback) # Mouse middle button  click
#my_w.bind('<Button-3>',my_callback) # Mouse right button  click
#my_w.bind('<B1-Motion>',my_callback) # Mouse left button pressed move
#my_w.bind('<ButtonRelease-1>',my_callback) # Mouse left button  release
#my_w.bind('<Double-Button-1>',my_callback) # Mouse left button  Double click 
#l1.bind('<Enter>',lambda e:l1.config(text='Welcome')) # Mouse enters label 
#l1.bind('<Leave>',lambda e:l1.config(text='Thanks')) # Mouse leaves label 
#my_w.bind('<MouseWheel>',my_callback) # Mouse middle button  click
my_w.mainloop()

Keyboard Events

`<Key>`	Any Key is pressed
`<Return>`	Enter Key is pressed
`<KeyPress>`	Key Press event of any widget
`<KeyRelease>`	Key Release event of any widget
`<FocusIn>`	When widget got focus
`<FocusOut>`	When widget lost focus
`<Right>`	When Right arrow is pressed
`<Left>`	When Left arrow is pressed
`<Up>`	When Up arrow is pressed
`<Down>`	When Down arrow is pressed

Tkinter binding keyboard events like Key press, release , focus, enter and callback functions

Callback function to read the Key pressed.

def my_callback(event):
    l1.config(text='You Pressed  : '+ event.char)

Binding the event

my_w.bind("<Key>", my_callback)

Using one-liner for Enter Key

my_w.bind("<Return>", lambda e:l1.config(text='Hi'))

Binding particular Key

To bind the event of specific key

import tkinter as tk # Python 3
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("615x400") 
def my_callback(event):
     l1.config(text='Clicked the key : '+ event.char)

l1=tk.Label(my_w,text='to Display',bg='yellow',font=('Times',26,'normal'))
l1.grid(row=0,column=1,padx=10,pady=10)

my_w.bind('<a>',my_callback) # Key a is pressed
my_w.bind('<K>',my_callback) # Key K is pressed

my_w.mainloop()

Difference between KeyPress and KeyRelease

Here the function my_t1() change the background colour of Entry widget t1 once the number of char exceeds 5. Here the KeyPress event will react after 7 chars are entered. However KeyRelease event will trigger the change in background colour once 6^th char is entered.
Difference between KeyPress and KeyRelease events.

def my_t1(*args):
    if(len(t1.get())>5):
        t1.config(bg='red')
    else:
        t1.config(bg='lightgreen')

Full code is here

import tkinter as tk # Python 3
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("615x400")
font=('Times',26,'normal')  
def my_callback(event):
    l1.config(text='You Pressed  : '+ event.char)
def my_t1(*args):
    if(len(t1.get())>5):
        t1.config(bg='red')
    else:
        t1.config(bg='lightgreen')

l1=tk.Label(my_w,text='to Display',bg='yellow',font=font)
l1.grid(row=0,column=0,padx=10,pady=10)
t1=tk.Entry(my_w,bg='lightgreen',font=font)
t1.grid(row=1,column=0,padx=10)

t2=tk.Entry(my_w,bg='lightgreen',font=font)
t2.grid(row=2,column=0,padx=10,pady=10)

my_w.bind("<Key>", my_callback) # Any key is pressed 
my_w.bind("<Return>", lambda e:l1.config(text='Hi')) # Enter Key
t1.bind("<KeyPress>",my_t1)
#t1.bind("<KeyRelease>",my_t1)
t1.bind("<FocusIn>",lambda e:l1.config(text='Welcome'))
t1.bind("<FocusOut>",lambda e:l1.config(text='Thanks'))

my_w.mainloop()

Using Arrow Keys

We can trigger different function by using directional arrow keys.

my_w.bind('<Right>',right)
my_w.bind('<Left>',left)
my_w.bind('<Up>',up)
my_w.bind('<Down>',down)

Triggering on Right arrow key press

my_w.bind("<Right>",lambda e:l1.config(text='Right arrow'))

Tkinter Shortcut Key Example

This Tkinter application demonstrates how to use a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+1) to open a new window.

import tkinter as tk

# Function to open a new Tkinter window
def open_window(event=None):
    new_window = tk.Toplevel(root)
    new_window.title("New Window")
    new_window.geometry("300x200")
    label = tk.Label(new_window, text="This is a new window!", font=("Arial", 14), fg="#dc3545") 
    label.pack(pady=20)

# Main Tkinter window
root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Shortcut Key Example")
root.geometry("400x300")

# Label for instructions with Bootstrap 'text-primary' color
instructions = tk.Label(root, text="Press Ctrl+1 to open a new window", font=("Arial", 12), fg="#007bff") 
instructions.pack(pady=50)

# Bind Ctrl+1 to the open_window function
root.bind("<Control-Key-1>", open_window)

# Run the Tkinter event loop
root.mainloop()

Typing keys to create Keyboard events . Enter & Leave Mouse events. Drag and Drop using Mouse button. Moving elements in canvas using arrow keys.
⚡ Master Tkinter Drag and Drop
More Projects using Tkinter Cut Copy Paste in Entry box Cut Copy Paste in Text box

Python Tkinter Dictionary Python- Tutorials

Subhendu Mohapatra

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Interactive Events in Tkinter: Handling User Inputs and Actions