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. Its classic usage is to select tools, for example the "pen" tool in a drawing program. This would be implemented with a QToolButton as 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 TQIconSet. 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 setUsesBigPixmap() and setUsesTextLabel(). When used inside a QToolBar in a QMainWindow, the button automatically adjusts to QMainWindow's settings (see QMainWindow::setUsesTextLabel() and QMainWindow::setUsesBigPixmaps()). The pixmap set on a QToolButton will be set to 22x22 if it is bigger than this size. If usesBigPixmap() is TRUE, then the pixmap will be set to 32x32.
.PP
A tool button can offer additional choices in a popup menu. The feature 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. With QToolButton you can set a popup menu using setPopup(). The default delay is 600ms; you can adjust it with setPopupDelay().
.PP
<center>
.ce 1
.B "[Image Omitted]"
.PP
</center> QToolbar with QToolbuttons
.PP
See also QPushButton, QToolBar, QMainWindow, GUI Design Handbook: Push Button, and Basic Widgets.
.SS "Member Type Documentation"
.SH "QToolButton::TextPosition"
The position of the tool button's textLabel in relation to the tool button's icon.
.TP
\fCQToolButton::BesideIcon\fR - The text appears beside the icon.
.TP
\fCQToolButton::BelowIcon\fR - The text appears below the icon.
Constructs a tool button called \fIname\fR, that is a child of \fIparent\fR (which must be a QToolBar).
.PP
The tool button will display \fIiconSet\fR, with its text label and tool tip set to \fItextLabel\fR and its status bar message set to \fIgrouptext\fR. It will be connected to the \fIslot\fR in object \fIreceiver\fR.
Constructs a tool button as an arrow button. The ArrowType \fItype\fR defines the arrow direction. Possible values are LeftArrow, RightArrow, UpArrow and DownArrow.
.PP
An arrow button has auto-repeat turned on by default.
Returns the icon set providing the icon shown on the button. See the "iconSet" property for details.
.SH "void QToolButton::openPopup ()"
Opens (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.
.SH "QPopupMenu * QToolButton::popup () const"
Returns the associated popup menu, or 0 if no popup menu has been defined.
.PP
See also setPopup().
.SH "int QToolButton::popupDelay () const"
Returns the time delay between pressing the button and the appearance of the associated popup menu in milliseconds. See the "popupDelay" property for details.
Associates the popup menu \fIpopup\fR with this tool button.
.PP
The popup will be shown each time the tool button has been pressed down for a certain amount of time. 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.
.PP
Ownership of the popup menu is not transferred to the tool button.
.PP
See also popup().
.SH "void QToolButton::setPopupDelay ( int delay )"
Sets the time delay between pressing the button and the appearance of the associated popup menu in milliseconds to \fIdelay\fR. See the "popupDelay" property for details.
Setting this property automatically sets the text as a tool tip too. There is no default text.
.PP
Set this property's value with setTextLabel() and get this property's value with textLabel().
.SH "TextPosition textPosition"
This property holds the position of the text label of this button.
.PP
Set this property's value with setTextPosition() and get this property's value with textPosition().
.SH "bool toggleButton"
This property holds whether this tool button is a toggle button.
.PP
Toggle buttons have an on/off state similar to check boxes. A tool button is not a toggle button by default.
.PP
See also on and toggle().
.PP
Set this property's value with setToggleButton().
.SH "bool usesBigPixmap"
This property holds whether this toolbutton uses big pixmaps.
.PP
QToolButton automatically connects this property to the relevant signal in the QMainWindow in which it resides. We strongly recommend that you use QMainWindow::setUsesBigPixmaps() instead.
.PP
This property's default is TRUE.
.PP
\fBWarning:\fR If you set some buttons (in a QMainWindow) to have big pixmaps and others to have small pixmaps, QMainWindow may not get the geometry right.
.PP
Set this property's value with setUsesBigPixmap() and get this property's value with usesBigPixmap().
.SH "bool usesTextLabel"
This property holds whether the toolbutton displays a text label below the button pixmap.
.PP
The default is FALSE.
.PP
QToolButton automatically connects this slot to the relevant signal in the QMainWindow in which is resides.
.PP
Set this property's value with setUsesTextLabel() and get this property's value with usesTextLabel().
