AccelLabelProtocol

public protocol AccelLabelProtocol : LabelProtocol

The GtkAccelLabel widget is a subclass of GtkLabel that also displays an accelerator key on the right of the label text, e.g. “Ctrl+S”. It is commonly used in menus to show the keyboard short-cuts for commands.

The accelerator key to display is typically not set explicitly (although it can be, with gtk_accel_label_set_accel()). Instead, the GtkAccelLabel displays the accelerators which have been added to a particular widget. This widget is set by calling gtk_accel_label_set_accel_widget().

For example, a GtkMenuItem widget may have an accelerator added to emit the “activate” signal when the “Ctrl+S” key combination is pressed. A GtkAccelLabel is created and added to the GtkMenuItem, and gtk_accel_label_set_accel_widget() is called with the GtkMenuItem as the second argument. The GtkAccelLabel will now display “Ctrl+S” after its label.

Note that creating a GtkMenuItem with gtk_menu_item_new_with_label() (or one of the similar functions for GtkCheckMenuItem and GtkRadioMenuItem) automatically adds a GtkAccelLabel to the GtkMenuItem and calls gtk_accel_label_set_accel_widget() to set it up for you.

A GtkAccelLabel will only display accelerators which have GTK_ACCEL_VISIBLE set (see GtkAccelFlags). A GtkAccelLabel can display multiple accelerators and even signal names, though it is almost always used to display just one accelerator key.

Creating a simple menu item with an accelerator key.

(C Language Example):

  GtkWidget *window = gtk_window_new (GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
  GtkWidget *menu = gtk_menu_new ();
  GtkWidget *save_item;
  GtkAccelGroup *accel_group;

  // Create a GtkAccelGroup and add it to the window.
  accel_group = gtk_accel_group_new ();
  gtk_window_add_accel_group (GTK_WINDOW (window), accel_group);

  // Create the menu item using the convenience function.
  save_item = gtk_menu_item_new_with_label ("Save");
  gtk_widget_show (save_item);
  gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER (menu), save_item);

  // Now add the accelerator to the GtkMenuItem. Note that since we
  // called gtk_menu_item_new_with_label() to create the GtkMenuItem
  // the GtkAccelLabel is automatically set up to display the
  // GtkMenuItem accelerators. We just need to make sure we use
  // GTK_ACCEL_VISIBLE here.
  gtk_widget_add_accelerator (save_item, "activate", accel_group,
                              GDK_KEY_s, GDK_CONTROL_MASK, GTK_ACCEL_VISIBLE);

CSS nodes

(plain Language Example):

label
╰── accelerator

Like GtkLabel, GtkAccelLabel has a main CSS node with the name label. It adds a subnode with name accelerator.

The AccelLabelProtocol protocol exposes the methods and properties of an underlying GtkAccelLabel instance. The default implementation of these can be found in the protocol extension below. For a concrete class that implements these methods and properties, see AccelLabel. Alternatively, use AccelLabelRef as a lighweight, unowned reference if you already have an instance you just want to use.