Tkinter GUI Text Editor using menu and filedialog for file operations

This is a basic script and many features can be added for better functionality. This is a sample project for learning.

This is a text editor with file menu to create new file, open existing file, update, Close and save file using Tkinter GUI.

Prerequisite for this project

All these file handling capabilities are developed using Tkinter Menu, filedialog and Text widget to manage the content ( data ) .

Creating menu

We will be using one file Menu with items ( options ) for managing file operations. Here are the items we will be including in our file menu.

New :	To create a file with default name of untitle.txt
Open :	Display the filedialog by askopefilename function asking user to select file.
Save :	Save data entered in Text widget to file, display the Save As file dialog if the file name is untitle.txt.
Save As :	File dialog to save the file as different file name.
Close:	Save the file ( above Save Operation ) and remove the content from Text widget.
Exit :	Close and exit the editor. ( With file save operation )

Layout with components of GUI

we have one Menu, One Text widget in our window. Here we have set variable init_dir to the folder we want to work. Change this path based on your system. We also declared one global variable file_name as we will be using this variable inside different functions.

The command option executes different functions based on the required file operation. These functions are explained below.

import tkinter  as tk 
from tkinter import filedialog,END 
from tkinter.filedialog import asksaveasfilename
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("409x350") 
init_dir='D:\\testing\\file-menu\\' # folder to work
global file_name # global variable to store file name. 

def my_fun():
    pass

menubar = tk.Menu(my_w)
my_font1=('Times',12,'bold')
menu_f = tk.Menu(menubar,title='my title',tearoff=0) # file

menubar.add_cascade(label="File", menu=menu_f) # Top Line

menu_f.add_command(label="New",command=lambda:new_file())
menu_f.add_command(label="Open..",command=lambda:open_file())  
menu_f.add_command(label="Save",command=lambda:save_file())
menu_f.add_command(label="Save As..",command=lambda:save_as_file())
menu_f.add_command(label="Close",command=lambda:close_file())
menu_f.add_command(label="Exit",command=my_w.quit)

my_w.config(menu=menubar) # adding menu to window

t1 = tk.Text(my_w,  height=15, width=45) # added one text box
t1.grid(row=1,column=1,padx=30,pady=20)
my_w.mainloop()

new_file(): Creating new file

Inside this function the file_name value is set to untitle.txt. The title of the window is set to file_name.
Title showing file name

def new_file():
    global file_name     
    file_name='untitle.txt' # new file name 
    my_w.title(file_name) # Title of the window shows file name

open_file() : Open file

def open_file():
    file = filedialog.askopenfilename(filetypes=[("txt file",".txt")],
        defaultextension=".txt",initialdir=init_dir)
    global file_name     
    file_name=file # set the file name
    my_w.title(file_name)    # update the GUI title 
    fob=open(file,'r') # open in read mode 
    my_str1=fob.read() # read data from file & store in variable 
    t1.delete('1.0',END) # remove the previous content in text box
    t1.insert(tk.END, my_str1) # add new data from file to text box
    fob.close()

save_file() : Save data in file

If the user has continued with the default file name untitle.txt then the function save_as_file() will be called to show file dialog to enter a new file name and save the file.

If file name is already available ( else part ) then the file is opened in write mode and data collected from Text widget is written to the file.

def save_file():
    global file_name # collect the file name
    if(file_name=='untitle.txt'): #if default file name is still there
        save_as_file() # call the function 
    else:
        fob=open(file_name,'w') # open in write mode
        my_str1=t1.get("1.0",END) # collect the data from text widget
        fob.write(my_str1)  # write to file

save_as_file() : Saving the file in different name

This is menu item is used when user wants to store the file in different file name. So the file save dialog box will be shown to user. User may click the Cancel button, so we will check the status by using if else check and open the file in write mode to save the data.

def save_as_file():
    file = filedialog.asksaveasfilename(
        filetypes=[("txt file", ".txt")],
        defaultextension=".txt",initialdir=init_dir)
    if file: # if user has not cancelled the dialog to save
        fob=open(file,'w') # open the file in write mode
        my_str1=t1.get("1.0",END) # collect data from text widget
        fob.write(my_str1) # write to file 
        my_w.title(file)  # Update the GUI title with file name
        fob.close() # Close file pointer 
    else: # user has cancelled the operation 
        print("No file chosen")

close_file() Close file

First we will call the function save_file() to excute the file save operation. This process can be removed if the file need not be saved while closing so last saved data will remain.
The data inside the Text widget is removed and Title of the window is kept as blank string.

def close_file():
    save_file()  # remove this line if not required
    t1.delete('1.0',END) # remove the content from text widget
    my_w.title('') # remove the title of GUI

import tkinter  as tk 
from tkinter import filedialog,END 
from tkinter.filedialog import asksaveasfilename
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("409x350") # change width height 
init_dir='D:\\testing\\file-menu\\' # folder to work
global file_name # 
def new_file():
    global file_name     
    file_name='untitle.txt' # new file name 
    my_w.title(file_name)
def open_file():
    file = filedialog.askopenfilename(filetypes=[("txt file", ".txt")],
        defaultextension=".txt",initialdir=init_dir)
    global file_name     
    file_name=file # set the file name
    my_w.title(file_name)    # update the GUI title 
    fob=open(file,'r') # open in read more 
    my_str1=fob.read() # read data from file
    t1.delete('1.0',END) # remove the previous content 
    t1.insert(tk.END, my_str1) # add new data from file to text box
    fob.close()
def save_file():
    global file_name # collect the file name
    if(file_name=='untitle.txt'): # if default file name is still there
        save_as_file() # call the function 
    else:
        fob=open(file_name,'w') # open in write mode
        my_str1=t1.get("1.0",END) # collect the data from text widget
        fob.write(my_str1)  # write to file  
def save_as_file():
    file = filedialog.asksaveasfilename(
        filetypes=[("txt file", ".txt")],
        defaultextension=".txt",initialdir=init_dir)
    if file: # if user has not cancelled the dialog to save
        fob=open(file,'w') # open the file in write mode
        my_str1=t1.get("1.0",END) # collect data from text widget
        fob.write(my_str1) # write to file 
        my_w.title(file)  # Update the GUI title with file name
        fob.close() # Close file pointer 
    else: # user has cancelled the operation 
        print("No file chosen")
def close_file():
    save_file()  # remove this line if not required
    t1.delete('1.0',END) # remove the content from text widget
    my_w.title('') # remove the title of GUI

menubar = tk.Menu(my_w)
my_font1=('Times',12,'bold')
menu_f = tk.Menu(menubar,title='my title',tearoff=0) # file

menubar.add_cascade(label="File", menu=menu_f) # Top Line

menu_f.add_command(label="New", command=lambda:new_file())
menu_f.add_command(label="Open..", command=lambda:open_file())  
menu_f.add_command(label="Save", command=lambda:save_file())
menu_f.add_command(label="Save As..", command=lambda:save_as_file())
menu_f.add_command(label="Close", command=lambda:close_file())
menu_f.add_command(label="Exit", command=my_w.quit)
my_w.config(menu=menubar) # adding menu to window

t1 = tk.Text(my_w,  height=15, width=45) # added one text box
t1.grid(row=1,column=1,padx=30,pady=20)

my_w.mainloop()

OptionMenu Projects in Tkinter

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Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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