Tkinters Highlight Of Button Is Not Working For Me

According to the accepted answer on this post the use of .configure(highlightbackground='red') on a button should apply a color around the button however in testing I cannot reprod

Solution 1:

Unfortunately it seems Windows OS doesn't seem to be triggering the state and default widget configs properly. However this is achievable by doing your own bindings.

If you only have a handful of widgets that need this behaviour, you can have create a widget wrapper:

def ResponsiveWidget(widget, *args, **kwargs):
    bindings = {
        '<FocusIn>': {'default':'active'},    # for Keyboard focus
        '<FocusOut>': {'default': 'normal'},  
        '<Enter>': {'state': 'active'},       # for Mouse focus
        '<Leave>': {'state': 'normal'}
    }
    # Create the widget instance
    w = widget(*args, **kwargs)

    # Set the bindings for the widget instance
    for k, v in bindings.items():
        w.bind(k, lambda e, kwarg=v: e.widget.config(**kwarg))

    # Remember to return the created and binded widget
    return w

btn = ResponsiveWidget(tk.Button, root, text='test3', bg="#000000", fg="#ffffff", highlightthickness=10, activebackground="#ffffff",
                activeforeground="#000000", highlightbackground='red', highlightcolor='green')

btn2 = ResponsiveWidget(tk.Button, root, text='test4', bg="#000000", fg="#ffffff", highlightthickness=10, activebackground="#ffffff",
                activeforeground="#000000", highlightbackground='green', highlightcolor='red')

On the other hand, if you wanted the entire class of the widget to always trigger the default/state properly, you can use bind_class instead:

bindings = {
    '<FocusIn>': {'default':'active'},    # for Keyboard focus
    '<FocusOut>': {'default': 'normal'},  
    '<Enter>': {'state': 'active'},       # for Mouse focus
    '<Leave>': {'state': 'normal'}
}
for k, v in bindings.items():
    root.bind_class('Button', k, lambda e, kwarg=v: e.widget.config(**kwarg))

This seem to trigger the events just fine.

If you just want to replicate the functionality of the highlight colour, a less desirable method would be to change the highlightcolor config on focus instead:

bindings = {
        '<FocusIn>': {'highlightcolor':'red'},
        '<FocusOut>': {'highlightcolor': 'SystemButtonFace'},
        '<Enter>': {'state': 'active'},
        '<Leave>': {'state': 'normal'}
    }
for k, v in bindings.items():
    root.bind_class('Button', k, lambda e, kwarg=v: e.widget.config(**kwarg))

# Note this method requires you to set the default='active' for your buttons

btn = tk.Button(root, text='test', bg="#000000", fg="#ffffff", highlightthickness=10, activebackground="#ffffff",
                activeforeground="#000000", highlightcolor='SystemButtonFace', default='active')

# ...

I'd consider this more a hacky method.

Edit: For completeness, here's a MCVE using bind_class:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
bindings = {
        '<FocusIn>': {'highlightcolor':'red'},
        '<FocusOut>': {'highlightcolor': 'SystemButtonFace'},
        '<Enter>': {'state': 'active'},
        '<Leave>': {'state': 'normal'}
    } 

for k, v in bindings.items():
    root.bind_class('Button', k, lambda e, kwarg=v: e.widget.config(**kwarg))

btns = list(range(5))
for btn in btns:
    btns[btn] = tk.Button(root, text='test', bg="#000000", fg="#ffffff", highlightthickness=5, activebackground="#ffffff",
        activeforeground="#000000", highlightcolor='SystemButtonFace', default='active', padx=5, pady=5)
    btns[btn].pack()

btns[0].focus_set()
root.mainloop()

And MCVE using ResponsiveWidget function:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
def ResponsiveWidget(widget, *args, **kwargs):
    bindings = {
        '<FocusIn>': {'highlightcolor':'red'},    # for Keyboard focus
        '<FocusOut>': {'highlightcolor': 'SystemButtonFace'},  
        '<Enter>': {'state': 'active'},       # for Mouse focus
        '<Leave>': {'state': 'normal'}
    }
    # Create the widget instance
    w = widget(*args, **kwargs)

    # Set the bindings for the widget instance
    for k, v in bindings.items():
        w.bind(k, lambda e, kwarg=v: e.widget.config(**kwarg))

    # Remember to return the created and binded widget
    return w

btns = list(range(5))
for btn in btns:
    btns[btn] = ResponsiveWidget(tk.Button, root, text=f'test{btn}', bg="#000000", fg="#ffffff", highlightthickness=10, activebackground="#ffffff",
        activeforeground="#000000", highlightcolor='SystemButtonFace', default='active', padx=5, pady=5)
    btns[btn].pack()

btns[0].focus_set()
root.mainloop()