Here's a slightly different way that you could do it. If you just need an indicator that you can click on, you can use a button with different images for different levels of severity and bind the button to open notepad.

$mw = MainWindow->new;
$images{severity1} = $mw->Photo(-file=>"sev1.xpm", -format=>'xpm');
$images{severity2} = $mw->Photo(-file=>"sev2.xpm", -format=>'xpm');
$images{severity3} = $mw->Photo(-file=>"sev3.xpm", -format=>'xpm');
$severity_button = $mw->Button(
     -image => $images{severity1},  # The default severity
     -width=>16, 
     -height=>16, 
     -command => \&CallNotepad);
...
sub ChangeToSeverity2 {
     $severity_button->configure(-image => $images{severity2});
}
[download]

Since you are already putting buttons in your menu, this should not take too much effort to implement.

--
hiseldl
What time is it? It's Camel Time!