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# QToolButton Class Reference
[QtGui module]

The QToolButton class provides a quick-access button to commands or options, usually used inside a QToolBar. More...

Inherits QAbstractButton.

### Types

- enum ToolButtonPopupMode { DelayedPopup, MenuButtonPopup, InstantPopup }

### Methods

- __init__ (self, QWidget parent = None)
- actionEvent (self, QActionEvent)
- Qt.ArrowType arrowType (self)
- bool autoRaise (self)
- changeEvent (self, QEvent)
- QAction defaultAction (self)
- enterEvent (self, QEvent)
- bool event (self, QEvent e)
- bool hitButton (self, QPoint pos)
- initStyleOption (self, QStyleOptionToolButton option)
- leaveEvent (self, QEvent)
- QMenu menu (self)
- QSize minimumSizeHint (self)
- mousePressEvent (self, QMouseEvent)
- mouseReleaseEvent (self, QMouseEvent)
- nextCheckState (self)
- paintEvent (self, QPaintEvent)
- ToolButtonPopupMode popupMode (self)
- setArrowType (self, Qt.ArrowType type)
- setAutoRaise (self, bool enable)
- setDefaultAction (self, QAction)
- setMenu (self, QMenu menu)
- setPopupMode (self, ToolButtonPopupMode mode)
- setToolButtonStyle (self, Qt.ToolButtonStyle style)
- showMenu (self)
- QSize sizeHint (self)
- timerEvent (self, QTimerEvent)
- Qt.ToolButtonStyle toolButtonStyle (self)

### Qt Signals

- void triggered (QAction *)

## Detailed Description

The QToolButton class provides a quick-access button to commands or options, usually used inside a QToolBar.

A tool button is a special button that provides quick-access to specific commands or options. As opposed to a normal command button, a tool button usually doesn't show a text label, but shows an icon instead.

Tool buttons are normally created when new QAction instances are created with QToolBar.addAction() or existing actions are added to a toolbar with QToolBar.addAction(). It is also possible to construct tool buttons in the same way as any other widget, and arrange them alongside other widgets in layouts.

One classic use of a tool button is to select tools; for example, the "pen" tool in a drawing program. This would be implemented by using a QToolButton as a toggle button (see setToggleButton()).

QToolButton supports auto-raising. In auto-raise mode, the button draws a 3D frame only when the mouse points at it. The feature is automatically turned on when a button is used inside a QToolBar. Change it with setAutoRaise().

A tool button's icon is set as QIcon. This makes it possible to specify different pixmaps for the disabled and active state. The disabled pixmap is used when the button's functionality is not available. The active pixmap is displayed when the button is auto-raised because the mouse pointer is hovering over it.

The button's look and dimension is adjustable with setToolButtonStyle() and setIconSize(). When used inside a QToolBar in a QMainWindow, the button automatically adjusts to QMainWindow's settings (see QMainWindow.setToolButtonStyle() and QMainWindow.setIconSize()). Instead of an icon, a tool button can also display an arrow symbol, specified with arrowType.

A tool button can offer additional choices in a popup menu. The popup menu can be set using setMenu(). Use setPopupMode() to configure the different modes available for tool buttons with a menu set. The default mode is DelayedPopupMode which is sometimes used with the "Back" button in a web browser. After pressing and holding the button down for a while, a menu pops up showing a list of possible pages to jump to. The default delay is 600 ms; you can adjust it with setPopupDelay().

Qt Assistant's toolbar contains tool buttons that are associated with actions used in other parts of the main window.

See also QPushButton, QToolBar, QMainWindow, QAction, and GUI Design Handbook: Push Button.

## Type Documentation

### QToolButton.ToolButtonPopupMode

Describes how a menu should be popped up for tool buttons that has a menu set or contains a list of actions.

Constant | Value | Description
--- | --- | ---

`QToolButton.DelayedPopup`

`0`

After pressing and holding the tool button down for a certain amount of time (the timeout is style dependant, see QStyle.SH_ToolButton_PopupDelay), the menu is displayed. A typical application example is the "back" button in some web browsers's tool bars. If the user clicks it, the browser simply browses back to the previous page. If the user presses and holds the button down for a while, the tool button shows a menu containing the current history list

`QToolButton.MenuButtonPopup` | `1` | In this mode the tool button displays a special arrow to indicate that a menu is present. The menu is displayed when the arrow part of the button is pressed.
`QToolButton.InstantPopup` | `2` | The menu is displayed, without delay, when the tool button is pressed. In this mode, the button's own action is not triggered.

## Method Documentation

### QToolButton.__init__ (self, QWidget parent = None)

The parent argument, if not None, causes self to be owned by Qt instead of PyQt.

Constructs an empty tool button with parent parent.

### QToolButton.actionEvent (self, QActionEvent)

### Qt.ArrowType QToolButton.arrowType (self)

### bool QToolButton.autoRaise (self)

### QToolButton.changeEvent (self, QEvent)

### QAction QToolButton.defaultAction (self)

Returns the default action.

See also setDefaultAction().

### QToolButton.enterEvent (self, QEvent)

### bool QToolButton.event (self, QEvent e)

### bool QToolButton.hitButton (self, QPoint pos)

### QToolButton.initStyleOption (self, QStyleOptionToolButton option)

Initialize option with the values from this QToolButton. This method is useful for subclasses when they need a QStyleOptionToolButton, but don't want to fill in all the information themselves.

See also QStyleOption.initFrom().

### QToolButton.leaveEvent (self, QEvent)

### QMenu QToolButton.menu (self)

Returns the associated menu, or 0 if no menu has been defined.

See also setMenu().

### QSize QToolButton.minimumSizeHint (self)

### QToolButton.mousePressEvent (self, QMouseEvent)

### QToolButton.mouseReleaseEvent (self, QMouseEvent)

### QToolButton.nextCheckState (self)

### QToolButton.paintEvent (self, QPaintEvent)

Paints the button in response to the paint event.

Reimplemented from QWidget.

### ToolButtonPopupMode QToolButton.popupMode (self)

### QToolButton.setArrowType (self, Qt.ArrowType type)

### QToolButton.setAutoRaise (self, bool enable)

### QToolButton.setDefaultAction (self, QAction)

This method is also a Qt slot with the C++ signature `void setDefaultAction(QAction *)`.

Sets the default action to action.

If a tool button has a default action, the action defines the button's properties like text, icon, tool tip, etc.

See also defaultAction().

### QToolButton.setMenu (self, QMenu menu)

Associates the given menu with this tool button.

The menu will be shown according to the button's popupMode.

Ownership of the menu is not transferred to the tool button.

See also menu().

### QToolButton.setPopupMode (self, ToolButtonPopupMode mode)

### QToolButton.setToolButtonStyle (self, Qt.ToolButtonStyle style)

This method is also a Qt slot with the C++ signature `void setToolButtonStyle(Qt::ToolButtonStyle)`.

### QToolButton.showMenu (self)

This method is also a Qt slot with the C++ signature `void showMenu()`.

Shows (pops up) the associated popup menu. If there is no such menu, this function does nothing. This function does not return until the popup menu has been closed by the user.

### QSize QToolButton.sizeHint (self)

### QToolButton.timerEvent (self, QTimerEvent)

### Qt.ToolButtonStyle QToolButton.toolButtonStyle (self)

## Qt Signal Documentation

### void triggered (QAction *)

This signal is emitted when the given action is triggered.

The action may also be associated with other parts of the user interface, such as menu items and keyboard shortcuts. Sharing actions in this way helps make the user interface more consistent and is often less work to implement.