How do I display tooltips in Tkinter?

Tooltips are helpful UI elements that display additional information when users hover over widgets. In Tkinter, we can create tooltips using the Balloon class from tkinter.tix module.

Using tkinter.tix.Balloon

The Balloon class provides an easy way to add tooltips to any Tkinter widget ?

# Import the tkinter library
from tkinter import *
from tkinter.tix import *

# Create an instance of tkinter frame
win = Tk()
# Set the geometry
win.geometry("600x450")

# Create a tooltip
tip = Balloon(win)

# Create a Button widget
my_button = Button(win, text="Hover Me")
my_button.pack(pady=20)

# Bind the tooltip with button
tip.bind_widget(my_button, balloonmsg="Welcome to TutorialsPoint!")

win.mainloop()

Creating a Custom Tooltip Class

Since tkinter.tix is deprecated, here's a modern approach using a custom tooltip class ?

import tkinter as tk

class ToolTip:
    def __init__(self, widget, text):
        self.widget = widget
        self.text = text
        self.tooltip = None
        self.widget.bind("<Enter>", self.show_tooltip)
        self.widget.bind("<Leave>", self.hide_tooltip)
    
    def show_tooltip(self, event):
        x = self.widget.winfo_rootx() + 20
        y = self.widget.winfo_rooty() + 20
        
        self.tooltip = tk.Toplevel()
        self.tooltip.wm_overrideredirect(True)
        self.tooltip.wm_geometry(f"+{x}+{y}")
        
        label = tk.Label(self.tooltip, text=self.text, 
                        background="yellow", relief="solid", borderwidth=1)
        label.pack()
    
    def hide_tooltip(self, event):
        if self.tooltip:
            self.tooltip.destroy()
            self.tooltip = None

# Example usage
root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry("400x300")

button1 = tk.Button(root, text="Button 1")
button1.pack(pady=10)
ToolTip(button1, "This is Button 1 tooltip")

button2 = tk.Button(root, text="Button 2") 
button2.pack(pady=10)
ToolTip(button2, "This is Button 2 tooltip")

root.mainloop()

Adding Tooltips to Multiple Widgets

You can easily add tooltips to different types of widgets ?

import tkinter as tk

class ToolTip:
    def __init__(self, widget, text):
        self.widget = widget
        self.text = text
        self.tooltip = None
        self.widget.bind("<Enter>", self.show_tooltip)
        self.widget.bind("<Leave>", self.hide_tooltip)
    
    def show_tooltip(self, event):
        x = self.widget.winfo_rootx() + 20
        y = self.widget.winfo_rooty() + 20
        
        self.tooltip = tk.Toplevel()
        self.tooltip.wm_overrideredirect(True)
        self.tooltip.wm_geometry(f"+{x}+{y}")
        
        label = tk.Label(self.tooltip, text=self.text, 
                        background="lightyellow", relief="solid", borderwidth=1,
                        font=("Arial", 9))
        label.pack()
    
    def hide_tooltip(self, event):
        if self.tooltip:
            self.tooltip.destroy()
            self.tooltip = None

root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Tooltips Example")
root.geometry("400x250")

# Button with tooltip
btn = tk.Button(root, text="Save File")
btn.pack(pady=10)
ToolTip(btn, "Click to save the current file")

# Entry with tooltip  
entry = tk.Entry(root, width=30)
entry.pack(pady=10)
ToolTip(entry, "Enter your name here")

# Label with tooltip
label = tk.Label(root, text="Status: Ready", bg="lightgreen")
label.pack(pady=10)
ToolTip(label, "Current application status")

root.mainloop()

Comparison

Conclusion

While tkinter.tix.Balloon provides a quick solution, creating a custom tooltip class offers better control and modern compatibility. The custom approach works with any Tkinter widget and allows styling customization.