[Announcements of Latest Developments](https://github.com/MikeTheWatchGuy/PySimpleGUI/issues/142)
----- ## Getting Started with PySimpleGUIQt
Welcome to the Alpha Release of PySimpleGUI for Qt!
You can use the exact same code that you are running on the older, tkinter, version of PySimpleGUI.
PySimpleGUIQt uses **PySide2** OR **PyQt5** for access to Qt.
## Porting your PySimpleGUI code to PySimpleGUIQt
To "port" your code from the tkinter implementation. Follow these steps:
1. Change `import PySimpleGUI` to `PySimpleGUIQt`
That's it! OK, maybe I should have said step instead of steps.
## Differences between PySimpleGUI and PySimpleGUIQt
#### Sizes
While you can use "Character-based" sizes like you did in tkinter, it's best to use pixel based sizes as that is what Qt uses. PySimpleGUIQt does some very rough / basic conversions from the character sizes to pixel sizes. It's enough that your elements will at least be visible. But the conversion is likely to not be ideal.
#### Fonts
Fonts should be in the format (font family, size). You can use the older string based too, but it will not work with setting like bold and italics. PySimpleGUIQt converts from the string 'Courier 20' to the tuple ('Courier', 20) for you.
### Installing PySimpleGUIQt for Python 3
pip install --upgrade PySimpleGUIQt
On Linux systems you need to run pip3.
pip3 install --upgrade PySimpleGUIQt
### Installing PySide2 or PyQt5 for Python 3
It is recommended that you use PySide2, however, if that cannot be found, then PyQt5 will be attempted. To install either of these:
```pip install PySide2```
or
```pip install PyQt5```
## Testing your installation
Once you have installed, or copied the .py file to your app folder, you can test the installation using python. At the command prompt start up Python.
You will see a sample window in the center of your screen. If it's not installed correctly you are likely to get an error message during one of those commands
All of the major features are DONE. They may not have all of their options working, but they can be added to your windows. It's been an amazing week to get here.
I hope you enjoy this ALPHA release! Please post a screenshot on the GitHub site. There is an Issue where users have been posting their applications. It's a place for you to show-off and a place for others to learn from your designs. Your window does not have to be complex.... all GUIs, no matter how simple, are something we can learn from.
### Functioning features
Features are being added daily to this Qt port of PySimpleGUI.
These Elements are "complete" (a relative term... more are more complete than others):
* Text
* Input single line
* Input multiline
* Output multiline (new)
* Dial (new)
* Output - reroute stdout
* Spinner
* Sliders
* Buttons - RButtons, CButtons, Short-cut Buttons
* Checkbox
* Radio Buttons
* Listbox
* ComboBox
* Labeled Frames
* Columns - enables you to make pretty much any layout!
There are a number of new features that are only available in PySimpleGUIQt. These include:
* ButtonMenu Element
* Dial Element
* Stretcher Element
* SystemTray feature
## SystemTray
In addition to running normal windows, it's now also possible to have an icon down in the system tray that you can read to get menu events. There is a new SystemTray object that is used much like a Window object. You first get one, then you perform Reads in order to get events. In this case the only events you'll receive are menu selections and timeouts.
:param title: Not currently used. A placeholder / name reminder
:param filename: PNG/ICO/? file that will be used for icon
:param menu:
:param data: In-RAM image to be used for icon
:param data_base64: Base64 data to be used for icon
'''
```
You'll notice that there are 3 different ways to specify the icon image. The base-64 parameter allows you to define a variable in your .py code that is the encoded image so that you do not need any additional files. Very handy feature.
### System Tray Design Pattern
Here is a design pattern you can use to get a jump-start.
This program will create a system tray icon and perform a blocking Read. If the item "Open" is chosen from the system tray, then a window is shown on the screen.
The menu definition adds a key "key" to the menu entries Hide and Open.
If you want to change the separator characters from :: top something else,change the variable `MENU_KEY_SEPARATOR`
When a menu item has a key and it is chosen, then entire string is returned. If Hide were selected, then Hide::key would be returned from the Read. Note that the shortcut character & is NOT returned from Reads.
