BitmapEffects should be used sparingly since currently1 they are software rendered but judicious limited usage of them can provide some nice effects for your application. In some cases, their usage is necessary to duplicate a particular look and feel - e.g. using a OuterGlowBitmapEffect to mimic the glow around text in the title area of the ribbon ...

Many applications such as Microsoft Office and web browsers provide the ability to scroll by pressing down the middle mouse button and dragging in the direction that you want to scroll. This feature is often referred to as mouse panning. When you press down the middle mouse button on a scrollable area, an indicator is displayed. This indicator ...

I think most developers and end users have come to expect that when a menu item or button is disabled that the image and text within that item are displayed as grayed out. This provides a visual indication that the item is not available for use. I can understand why the Image element would not do this by default but I was surprised to find that ...

It's been a while since I last blogged something but that's because I've been hard working on our latest exemplar at Infragistics.  It's a WPF ''reference application'' and is released.... RIGHT NOW!  So if you want to learn some good techniques about including a WPF application in an enterprise realm, take a look at Tangerine! It's ...

Grant Hinkson (our Director of Visual Design at Infragistics) and I will be doing our talk ''Meeting in the Middle - Designer/Developer Interaction in WPF.''  It looks like we have the first breakout session on Tuesday, October 9 at 9:00 AM.  Take a look to see what other sessions are going on:  ...

Saturday, May 19th I'll be speaking in the Poconos in Pennsylvania at TECH Bash 2007.  If you'll be in the area, make sure you attend! Session Topic:  Humanizing Software:  Creating Better User Experience with WPF Session Description:  End Users today expect great and exciting experiences in their software that allow ...

Announced at MIX this morning...  Microsoft is giving people the opportunity to host up to 4GB!!!! of video.  That's crazy awesome!  Go visit the site for more info:  https://silverlight.live.com Microsoft® Silverlight™ Streaming by Windows Live™ is a companion service for Silverlight that makes it easier for developers and ...

If you are an MSDN subscriber, have you checked out the Subscriber Downloads site recently?  Take advantage of that special offer including xamDataGrid for FREE! The offer is at the top of the main page and also on the right side.

Right now there are limited training resources for learning WPF and pretty much a non-existence of proven patterns and practices.  All of these assets will eventually come to the developer community as more people adopt the technology.  For right now, I would recommend this book for learning and as a keeper for a decent reference ...