You can convert almost any art object into a Button control if you think it can work, behave, and appear as a button. For example, you could create a template for a button that used the
cloud object for the button’s appearance. I wrote how to draw a Cloud button here. And you can use the built-in Button control template to create a custom Button template.

The Cloud Button style has nice MouseOver and Pressed states. Point to this cute object. The cloud appears to move up, and its shadow gets smaller.

Demo

Download a project

Several years ago I published the Caramel theme for Silverlight controls.  Also there are Cherry, Lime and Pale themes. Well, it’s nice time to update them and I decided to start with the Caramel theme. So we have such changes in comparison with the previous version:

Separating resources for all controls

All colors, shadows, general margins moved to the Colors.xaml file. Besides that, each control has his own resource file and linked to Colors.xaml (don’t forget it!).

A new XAML code

XAML code for all controls was rewrote. The glass effect was optimized for stretching horizontally and vertically.

Convenient names for colors

Names of color resources were renamed.

Shifting accents

Common  and other states were changed so only buttons, tab headers and scrollbars have a convex glass effect. Highlighting for input controls is flat and without border color animation.

Scrollbar styles

Scrollbars don’t have up and down buttons. The width of the vertical scrollbar and the height of the horizontal scrollbar were reduced. The background of scrollbars is flat now.

Compact views

All controls are more compact now with less unnecessary elements.

Line height

All input controls (TextBox, PasswordBox, ComboBox, ListBox) and buttons have a 24px line height so look more smooth and done carefully. You can place the Button control in one line with the TextBox.

Default margins

The 3px MarginDefault resource was added to all controls so they look good in the grid and other layouts.

The Focused state

Thought a lot about the Focus state for all controls. The dark border color was moved from the Normal state to the Focused.

New controls were added

DatePicker and TabControl were added to this theme.

Demo

Download the Caramel theme

Published a fully customized DatePicker control. Looks good with the new calendar icon, gradient strokes and the blue shadow.

Take a look at the demo

Download a sample

A set of Magic Backgrounds for Windows Phone Panorama Applications. All look good with the basic black text and almost all with the white text.

Download Magic Backgrounds

Download Windows Phone Panorama Application with Magic Backgrounds

Another Compact ProgressBar with only one state.

You can use this sample to add an indeterminate progress bar that runs on the compositor thread for better performance. Looks good in TreeView, DataGrid, footer lines and other places where you need a compact loading indicator.

Real size and demo

Download sample

Compact ProgressBar with only one state.

You can use this sample to add an indeterminate progress bar that runs on the compositor thread for better performance. Looks good in TreeView, DataGrid and other places where you need a compact loading indicator.

Real size and demo

Download sample

New wallpapers with Expression Blend before you install Windows 8

1280x800

1440x900

1680x1050

1920x1200

 Custom toggle button with 2 states (Yes and No) visible at the same time but separated into 2 parts.

1. Open project in Microsoft Expression Blend
2. Use the Resources panel to customize colors: modify RgbSecond and BgControlSecond brushes.
3. Test the ToggleButton control.
4. Attach ToggleButton.xaml to your project resources.
5. Apply the ToggleButtonYesNo style to selected ToggleButton controls.

A little sample how the NumericUpDown control from Silverlight toolkit can be customizable.

1. Open project in Microsoft Expression Blend
2. Use the Resources panel to customize colors: modify RgbSecond and BgControlSecond brushes.

1. Test the NumericUpDown control.

1. Attach Numeric.xaml to your project resources. The NumericUpDown Style applies automatically.
2. Tune such NumericUpDown properties as HorizontalAlignment, Foreground if you need.

Download Sample

In honor of MIX11, happening now in Las Vegas,
you can SAVE 50% on these ebooks from Microsoft Press:

• HTML5 Step by Step
• Microsoft XNA Game Studio 4.0
• JavaScript Step by Step, Second Edition
• Microsoft Expression Blend 4 Step by Step
• Microsoft Expression Web 4 Step by Step
• Microsoft Silverlight 4 Step by Step
• Microsoft Silverlight Edition: Programming Windows Phone 7
• Microsoft XNA Framework Edition: Programming Windows Phone 7
• Windows Phone 7 Developer Guide
• Windows Communication Foundation 4 Step by Step

Find more info here:  oreilly.com

Use discount code DDM5D in the shopping cart.