**PTWidgets Extension Description**

===none
What: PTwidgets
Where: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ptwidgets/
Description: This is a collection of pure Tcl/Tk scripted widgets that
       implement token-based interface elements.  The two currently
       supported widgets are tokenentry and tokensearch.  Token-based
       widgets allow for text entry of values that are turned into immutable
       elements that can be moved, inserted, deleted and modified as a single
       entity (rather than by individual characters as is the case of the entry
       and text widgets).  These interface elements allow for simple user
       interaction but with powerful entry features.
       Currently at version 1.0.
Updated: 11/2011
Contact: mailto:phase1geo@gmail.com
===

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The tokenentry widget allows users to quickly and accurately enter text strings via an entry-styled field.  When the comma
character or return key is pressed, the currently entered text is automatically transformed into a token element.  Multiple tokens
can be input into the widget.  Each widget can be moved to a new position in the widget (via drag-and-drop),
deleted, selected, modified (either by converting the token back to text or by selecting a new value from a list of prescribed
values from a drop-down list), copied or cut.  If the -listvar option is specified to the widget (containing a list of values), automatic
live string matching is performed as the user enters text into the widget that allows for precise value entry.  Because this value list
can contain sublists, multiple values for each entry can be searched for better matching (i.e., the widget can be used to specify
e-mail addresses where each entry in the -listvar list contains the user's name and e-mail address -- value matching can be performed
on either value and the e-mail address portion of the list can be used as the token value).

The following images show a few screenshots of the tokenentry widget in action.

[http://here.com/photo.gif|png|jpg]
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The tokensearch widget allows users to quickly and accurately specify search information in an entry-styled field.  When the comma
or return key is pressed after typing a search string, the string is converted into a token element in the widget which contains two
parts:  a search category and the search string.  By clicking on the category dropdown arrow, the user can select from a user-specified
list of search categories (accessible from a popup menu).  Additionally, the widget can be given a variable that stores token history
(a list of previously entered search strings, presumably).  This allows the user to have history items that match the currently entered
text string to be available from a drop-down list or, by clicking the search string drop-down arrow, display this history information
in the drop-down list.  Each token may be moved to a new position in the widget (via drag-and-drop), deleted, selected, modified
(either by converting the token back to text or by selecting a new value from the history list), copied or cut.

The following images show a few screenshots of the tokensearch widget in action.