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.AccelLabel.setAccel). Instead, the #GtkAccelLabel displays the accelerators which have been added to a particular widget. This widget is set by calling gtk.accel_label.AccelLabel.setAccelWidget.

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.AccelLabel.setAccelWidget 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.MenuItem.newWithLabel (or one of the similar functions for #GtkCheckMenuItem and #GtkRadioMenuItem) automatically adds a #GtkAccelLabel to the #GtkMenuItem and calls gtk.accel_label.AccelLabel.setAccelWidget to set it up for you.

A #GtkAccelLabel will only display accelerators which have gtk.types.AccelFlags.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.

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

label
╰── accelerator

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