Mastering PySimpleGUI: Build Interactive Dialogs and Simple Compression Tools in Python

Python plays a key role in operations and office automation; PySimpleGUI is a handy module that simplifies creating GUI dialogs for everyday tasks.

1. Installing PySimpleGUI

Run pip install pysimplegui in the terminal, then import with import PySimpleGUI to verify the installation.

2. Creating simple popup windows

2.1 Two window design patterns

One‑shot window: appears once, suitable for notifications or data collection.

Persistent window: stays open until the user closes it, often used as the main interface.

2.2 Popup examples

Common popup functions (sg is the default alias):

sg.popup('Attention!')

sg.popup_ok('Default popup')

sg.popup_yes_no('Yes/No buttons')

sg.popup_cancel('Cancel button')

sg.popup_ok_cancel('OK and Cancel')

sg.popup_error('Error style')

sg.popup_auto_close('Auto‑close after seconds')

The last example closes automatically after about 2 seconds. All popups accept additional parameters such as title, colors, line width, and custom button text.

sg.popup(
  'This is a popup',
  title='Hello',
  button_color=('#A81B0C', '#FFFFFF'),
  background_color='#F47264',
  line_width=2,
  custom_text=' OK '
)

2.3 Text‑scrolling popup

Use sg.popup_scrolled(text, title='Hello') to display multi‑line text.

text = '''Hello everyone,
let's learn PySimpleGUI together.'''
sg.popup_scrolled(text, title='Hello')

2.4 Getting user input

Use sg.popup_get_text() to prompt for input; the function returns the entered string or None if cancelled.

text1 = sg.popup_get_text('Enter text 1')
print(text1)
text2 = sg.popup_get_text('Enter text 2')
print(text2)

2.5 File selection

Use sg.popup_get_file() to let the user choose a file path; the selected path appears in the input box.

2.6 Folder selection

Use sg.popup_get_folder() to let the user pick a directory; the chosen path is returned.

2.7 Progress bar

Use sg.one_line_progress_meter() inside a loop to display a dynamic progress bar.

for i in range(1000):
    sg.one_line_progress_meter('Progress', i+1, 1000, 'key', 'Progress bar')

3. Building a simple compression utility

3.1 Requirements

Show a folder‑selection popup.

Show a file‑save popup for the zip archive.

Compress all files in the chosen folder.

Display the resulting archive size.

3.2 Implementation

The script uses sg.popup_get_folder(), sg.popup_get_file(save_as=True, default_extension='zip'), the standard zipfile module, and os.stat() to report size.

import PySimpleGUI as sg
import zipfile
import os

folder = sg.popup_get_folder('Select folder to compress')
zip_path = sg.popup_get_file('Select save location',
                            save_as=True,
                            default_extension='zip',
                            file_types=(('zip archive', '.zip'),))

with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_path, 'w') as zipobj:
    for file in os.scandir(folder):
        zipobj.write(file.path, file.path.replace(folder, '.'))

zip_size = os.stat(zip_path).st_size // 1024
sg.popup(f'Compressed size: {zip_size} KB')