WPF Programmer's Reference: Windows Presentation Foundation with C# 2010 and .NET 4

Appendix M. Styles

A Style lets you define a package of properties that you can later assign as a group to make controls more consistent and to make the code easier to read.

You can define Styles in a control's Resources section. If you are going to share a Style, it is most convenient to place it in a container's Resources section.

Typically a Style contains Setter and EventSetter objects that define specific property values and event handlers for the controls that use the Style.

You can make two kinds of Styles: named and unnamed.

Named Styles

To make a named Style, give it an x:Name attribute. Later you can refer to the Style as a StaticResource.

The following XAML code defines and uses a Style named styButton:

<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
    <StackPanel.Resources>
        <Style x:Key="styButton" TargetType="Button">
            <Setter Property="Width" Value="100"/>
            <Setter Property="Height" Value="30"/>
            <Setter Property="Margin" Value="5"/>
            <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="14"/>
            <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Bold"/>
            <EventSetter Event="Click" Handler="MenuButton_Clicked"/>
        </Style>
    </StackPanel.Resources>

    <Button Style="{StaticResource styButton}" Content="Customers"
     Width="150"/>
    <Button Style="{StaticResource styButton}" Content="Orders"/>
    <Button Style="{StaticResource styButton}" Content="Inventory"/>
    <Button Content="Maintenance" Width="75" Height="25"
     Click="Maintenance_Clicked"/>
</StackPanel>

The Style defines the Button properties Width, Height, Margin, FontSize, and FontWeight ...