Introduction

Microsoft Blend for Visual Studio (formerly Microsoft Expression Blend) is a user interface design tool developed and sold by Microsoft for creating graphical interfaces for web and desktop applications that blend the features of these two types of applications. It is an interactive, WYSIWYG front-end for designing XAML-based interfaces for Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight applications. It was one of the applications in the Microsoft Expression Studio suite before that suite was discontinued. Expression Blend supports the WPF text engine with advanced OpenType typography and ClearType, vector-based 2D widgets, and 3D widgets with hardware acceleration via DirectX.

Prerequisties

• No knowledge is assumed, but it helps to have a working knowledge PowerPoint.

Course Content

1. Introducing Expression Blend 4

• A Quick Look at the Blend Interface
• Creating Your First Application
• Adding Basic Controls to Your First Application

2. VISUAL DESIGN

• The Basics of Paths
• Brushes
• Shapes
• Fills
• Strokes
• Gradients
• Convert Shape to Path, Transform Objects & Boolean Operations
• Working with Images & Clipping Paths
• Importing Adobe Photoshop Layers
• Modifying Borders
• Applying, Embedding & Managing Fonts

3. WORKING WITH LAYOUTS

• The Grid Container
• Putting Things in the Right Place
• The StackPanel & ScrollViewer
• The PathListBox

4. THE BASICS OF ANIMATIONS

• The Basics of Animation
• Easing & Keyframes
• Controlling Animation with Behaviors
• Tweaking Animation Duration & Timing
• Tying It All Together
• Animation Interactions
• USING RESOURCES
• Introduction to Resources
• Resource Scope & What it Means
• Resource Dictionaries

5. CONTROL CUSTOMIZATION

• What are Styles?
• What are Templates?
• Visual States
• Transitions, Transition Eects& Transition Binding
• A More Complex Control: The Scroll Bar
• Unkeyed Resources
• USER CONTROLS
• What is a UserControl?
• Fixing Broken Resources in UserControls

6. WORKING WITH DATA

• Element to Element Data Binding
• TwoWay Data Binding
• Creating a Sample Data Source
• Data Templates
• The Master Detail View

7. ADDING INTERACTIVITY

• Using Events to Create Interaction
• Using Behaviors to Create Interaction
• Introduction to the Data Store
• Adding Conditional Behaviors

8. USING SKETCHFLOW

• Welcome to SketchFlow
• The SketchFlow Map & Creating a Prototype
• The SketchFlow Player
• Hooking Up Navigation & Component Screens
• Feedback in Both Directions
• Using the Data Store & Conditional Behaviors in a Prototype
• Displaying Data from the Data Store & Multi-State Component Screens
• SketchFlow Animations
• Credits