QMenuBar

The QMenuBar class provides a horizontal menu bar. More…

Inheritance diagram of PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar

Synopsis

Functions

Virtual functions

Signals

Detailed Description

A menu bar consists of a list of pull-down menu items. You add menu items with addMenu() . For example, assuming that menubar is a pointer to a QMenuBar and fileMenu is a pointer to a QMenu , the following statement inserts the menu into the menu bar:

menubar.addMenu(fileMenu)

The ampersand in the menu item’s text sets Alt+F as a shortcut for this menu. (You can use “&&” to get a real ampersand in the menu bar.)

There is no need to lay out a menu bar. It automatically sets its own geometry to the top of the parent widget and changes it appropriately whenever the parent is resized.

Usage

In most main window style applications you would use the menuBar() function provided in QMainWindow , adding QMenu s to the menu bar and adding QAction s to the pop-up menus.

Example (from the Menus example):

fileMenu = menuBar().addMenu(tr("File"))
fileMenu.addAction(newAct)

Menu items may be removed with removeAction() .

Widgets can be added to menus by using instances of the QWidgetAction class to hold them. These actions can then be inserted into menus in the usual way; see the QMenu documentation for more details.

Platform Dependent Look and Feel

Different platforms have different requirements for the appearance of menu bars and their behavior when the user interacts with them. For example, Windows systems are often configured so that the underlined character mnemonics that indicate keyboard shortcuts for items in the menu bar are only shown when the Alt key is pressed.

QMenuBar as a Global Menu Bar

On macOS and on certain Linux desktop environments such as Ubuntu Unity, QMenuBar is a wrapper for using the system-wide menu bar. If you have multiple menu bars in one dialog the outermost menu bar (normally inside a widget with widget flag Window ) will be used for the system-wide menu bar.

Qt for macOS also provides a menu bar merging feature to make QMenuBar conform more closely to accepted macOS menu bar layout. The merging functionality is based on string matching the title of a QMenu entry. These strings are translated (using tr() ) in the ” QMenuBar ” context. If an entry is moved its slots will still fire as if it was in the original place. The table below outlines the strings looked for and where the entry is placed if matched:

String matches

Placement

Notes

about.*

Application Menu | About <application name>

The application name is fetched from the Info.plist file (see note below). If this entry is not found no About item will appear in the Application Menu.

config, options, setup, settings or preferences

Application Menu | Preferences

If this entry is not found the Settings item will be disabled

quit or exit

Application Menu | Quit <application name>

If this entry is not found a default Quit item will be created to call quit()

You can override this behavior by using the menuRole() property.

If you want all windows in a Mac application to share one menu bar, you must create a menu bar that does not have a parent. Create a parent-less menu bar this way:

menuBar = QMenuBar(None)

Note

Do not call menuBar() to create the shared menu bar, because that menu bar will have the QMainWindow as its parent. That menu bar would only be displayed for the parent QMainWindow .

Note

The text used for the application name in the macOS menu bar is obtained from the value set in the Info.plist file in the application’s bundle. See Qt for macOS - Deployment for more information.

Note

On Linux, if the com.canonical.AppMenu.Registrar service is available on the D-Bus session bus, then Qt will communicate with it to install the application’s menus into the global menu bar, as described.

Examples

The Menus example shows how to use QMenuBar and QMenu . The other main window application examples also provide menus using these classes.

See also

QMenu QShortcut QAction Introduction to Apple Human Interface Guidelines GUI Design Handbook: Menu Bar Menus Example

class PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar([parent=None])
Parameters

parent – PySide6.QtWidgets.QWidget

Constructs a menu bar with parent parent.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.actionAt(arg__1)
Parameters

arg__1 – PySide6.QtCore.QPoint

Return type

PySide6.QtGui.QAction

Returns the QAction at pt. Returns None if there is no action at pt or if the location has a separator.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.actionGeometry(arg__1)
Parameters

arg__1 – PySide6.QtGui.QAction

Return type

PySide6.QtCore.QRect

Returns the geometry of action act as a QRect .

See also

actionAt()

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.activeAction()
Return type

PySide6.QtGui.QAction

Returns the QAction that is currently highlighted, if any, else None.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.addAction(arg__1, arg__2)
Parameters

  • arg__1 – str

  • arg__2 – object

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.addAction(text)
Parameters

text – str

Return type

PySide6.QtGui.QAction

This convenience function creates a new action with text. The function adds the newly created action to the menu’s list of actions, and returns it.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.addAction(text, receiver, member)
Parameters
Return type

PySide6.QtGui.QAction

This is an overloaded function.

This convenience function creates a new action with the given text. The action’s triggered() signal is connected to the receiver's member slot. The function adds the newly created action to the menu’s list of actions and returns it.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.addMenu(title)
Parameters

title – str

Return type

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenu

Appends a new QMenu with title to the menu bar. The menu bar takes ownership of the menu. Returns the new menu.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.addMenu(icon, title)
Parameters
Return type

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenu

Appends a new QMenu with icon and title to the menu bar. The menu bar takes ownership of the menu. Returns the new menu.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.addMenu(menu)
Parameters

menu – PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenu

Return type

PySide6.QtGui.QAction

Appends menu to the menu bar. Returns the menu’s menuAction(). The menu bar does not take ownership of the menu.

Note

The returned QAction object can be used to hide the corresponding menu.

See also

addAction() menuAction()

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.addSeparator()
Return type

PySide6.QtGui.QAction

Appends a separator to the menu.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.clear()

Removes all the actions from the menu bar.

Note

On macOS, menu items that have been merged to the system menu bar are not removed by this function. One way to handle this would be to remove the extra actions yourself. You can set the menu role on the different menus, so that you know ahead of time which menu items get merged and which do not. Then decide what to recreate or remove yourself.

See also

removeAction()

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.cornerWidget([corner=Qt.TopRightCorner])
Parameters

corner – Corner

Return type

PySide6.QtWidgets.QWidget

Returns the widget on the left of the first or on the right of the last menu item, depending on corner.

Note

Using a corner other than TopRightCorner or TopLeftCorner will result in a warning.

See also

setCornerWidget()

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.hovered(action)
Parameters

action – PySide6.QtGui.QAction

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.initStyleOption(option, action)
Parameters

Initialize option with the values from the menu bar and information from action. This method is useful for subclasses when they need a QStyleOptionMenuItem , but don’t want to fill in all the information themselves.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.insertMenu(before, menu)
Parameters
Return type

PySide6.QtGui.QAction

This convenience function inserts menu before action before and returns the menus menuAction().

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.insertSeparator(before)
Parameters

before – PySide6.QtGui.QAction

Return type

PySide6.QtGui.QAction

This convenience function creates a new separator action, i.e. an action with isSeparator() returning true. The function inserts the newly created action into this menu bar’s list of actions before action before and returns it.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.isDefaultUp()
Return type

bool

This property holds the popup orientation.

The default popup orientation. By default, menus pop “down” the screen. By setting the property to true, the menu will pop “up”. You might call this for menus that are below the document to which they refer.

If the menu would not fit on the screen, the other direction is used automatically.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.isNativeMenuBar()
Return type

bool

This property holds Whether or not a menubar will be used as a native menubar on platforms that support it.

This property specifies whether or not the menubar should be used as a native menubar on platforms that support it. The currently supported platforms are macOS, and Linux desktops which use the com.canonical.dbusmenu D-Bus interface (such as Ubuntu Unity). If this property is true, the menubar is used in the native menubar and is not in the window of its parent; if false the menubar remains in the window. On other platforms, setting this attribute has no effect, and reading this attribute will always return false.

The default is to follow whether the AA_DontUseNativeMenuBar attribute is set for the application. Explicitly setting this property overrides the presence (or absence) of the attribute.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.setActiveAction(action)
Parameters

action – PySide6.QtGui.QAction

Sets the currently highlighted action to act.

See also

activeAction()

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.setCornerWidget(w[, corner=Qt.TopRightCorner])
Parameters

This sets the given widget to be shown directly on the left of the first menu item, or on the right of the last menu item, depending on corner.

The menu bar takes ownership of widget, reparenting it into the menu bar. However, if the corner already contains a widget, this previous widget will no longer be managed and will still be a visible child of the menu bar.

Note

Using a corner other than TopRightCorner or TopLeftCorner will result in a warning.

See also

cornerWidget()

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.setDefaultUp(arg__1)
Parameters

arg__1 – bool

This property holds the popup orientation.

The default popup orientation. By default, menus pop “down” the screen. By setting the property to true, the menu will pop “up”. You might call this for menus that are below the document to which they refer.

If the menu would not fit on the screen, the other direction is used automatically.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.setNativeMenuBar(nativeMenuBar)
Parameters

nativeMenuBar – bool

This property holds Whether or not a menubar will be used as a native menubar on platforms that support it.

This property specifies whether or not the menubar should be used as a native menubar on platforms that support it. The currently supported platforms are macOS, and Linux desktops which use the com.canonical.dbusmenu D-Bus interface (such as Ubuntu Unity). If this property is true, the menubar is used in the native menubar and is not in the window of its parent; if false the menubar remains in the window. On other platforms, setting this attribute has no effect, and reading this attribute will always return false.

The default is to follow whether the AA_DontUseNativeMenuBar attribute is set for the application. Explicitly setting this property overrides the presence (or absence) of the attribute.

PySide6.QtWidgets.QMenuBar.triggered(action)
Parameters

action – PySide6.QtGui.QAction