If you are completely new to WPF & XAML like I am, then
trying to style your UI in XAML can be a little frustrating
especially if in your head you have how you want it to look.
I spent ages looking around the internet for styles I could use
which would get me off on the right foot, then stumbled on WPF
Themes on CodePlex (http://wpfthemes.codeplex.com)
which has a really nice set of themes including ones from the
Silverlight Toolkit and a few other nice ones.
The whistler blue was very close to what I wanted for my UI, so
I thought I would download it and install it… Yes sounds simple,
but… No download link on the project… It did have code check-ins
and I happened to notice the word NuGet in the comments.
So I fired up NuGet and lone behold WPF Themes is listed (Gotta
love NuGet!), so I installed it hopped back over to CodePlex to
find out how the heck I apply / use these themes… Clicked the
documentation tab… And nothing. Rather frustrating especially
when you are a COMPLETE WPF NEWB!
After tinkering and Googling around most of the day I have
figured it out, so to save other newbies going through the same
circle I went in - To use WPF Themes do the following
- Install it via NuGet (This will add a reference to WPF.Themes
in your solution)
- Open up your MainWindow.xaml and add in a using statement to
the WPFThemes
using WPF.Themes;
- Choose the theme you want and you call it like so after the
InitializeComponent(); method
this.ApplyTheme("WhistlerBlue");
Here is a list of all the themes and you just replace the name
with the one you want to use
- ExpressionDark
- ExpressionLight
- Rainier
- RainierPurple
- RainierOrange
- RainierRadialBlue
- Shiny
- ShinyDarkGreen
- ShinyDarkTeal
- ShinyDarkPurple
- ShinyBlue
- ShinyRed
- Bureau
- BureauBlack
- BureauBlue
- Whistler
- WhistlerBlue
- DavesGlossyControls
- DavesGlossyControls
- UXMusing
- UXMusingRed
- UXMusingGreen
- UXMusingRough
- UXMusingRoughGreen
- UXMusingRoughRed
- UXMusingBubbly
- UXMusingBubblyBlue
I haven't created another page/window yet in this WPF app, but
would suspect you need to do the above for each new one you create
- But don't quote me on that!