Chapter 3. Expression Blend

Visual Studio provides an excellent environment for writing C# or Visual Basic code but a mediocre environment for creating XAML interfaces. Expression Blend provides the opposite experience: It is a fine environment for creating XAML interfaces but a lackluster tool for creating C# and Visual Basic code-behind.

Fortunately, Expression Blend is nicely integrated with Visual Studio, so you can switch back and forth between the two tools as needed.

This chapter explains how you can use Expression Blend to build Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) user interfaces (UI). It explains how to start a new project, add controls to a window, specify basic control properties, and create simple animations.

Expression Blend is a huge and complicated application with lots of powerful features for building XAML user interfaces, and this book only covers the bare minimum necessary to build WPF applications. For more detailed information about the intricacies of Expression Blend, consult a book that focuses solely on Expression Blend such as Foundation Expression Blend 3 with Silverlight (Victor Gaudioso, ...

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