Change the default Windows "graphics" in a C# program - winforms

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c51/dog199200/launchPanel.png
I am looking to find out how to do that in VS 2010 Pro, using C#..
I see application all the time that use their own graphics, but can not google, nor find any tuts on how anyone does this.
I would love any hints/ideas.

Take a look at Windows Presentation Foundation, at http://http://windowsclient.net/. You can do stuff like the link you provided. There are some good starter labs at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms742119.aspx
good luck :-)

Related

Is it possible to have a solution that builds an XBAP and Standard Application as an output?

Is it possible to have a project build that produces both a standard version of an application (standard as in just the exe and its required assemblies) and an XBAP version of the application? I have looked on the internet and read my books on WPF and I have not found a way to do this as of yet.
Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing your answers.
Adam
After a lot more searching and leafing through the incredibly useful "Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed" - I was presented with a link to a site where they supplied a project template to achieve my exact requirement.
For anyone else interested the link is below:
http://scorbs.com/2006/06/04/vs-template-flexible-application/
Thanks!

Fisheye for Winforms

Does anybody if there is a fisheye (menu/pane) windows forms control like it is often seen in Ajax applications:
example: http://interface.eyecon.ro/demos/fisheye.html
A googled around, but I only found this one at codeprojece:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/menus/FishEyeMenu.aspx
Have you checked out : DotNetBar BubbleBar. It works and looks pretty similar to FishEye.
Also FYI, if you download and register VB Express Edition 2008 (not sure on any other express edition) you get access to download a copy of the bubblebar as a thank you for registering (there is other stuff too). I do not recall the license on it, but I think it was a single install license.
You should try Flash components . I have seen plenty of them on the internet. This is one fo them: http://www.shinedraw.com/animation-effect/flash-and-silverlight-fish-eye-menu/
Even Adobe Flare could help. You might need Adobe Flex builder to create one.

What tools are available to create a help file in Visual Studio 2010?

I need to write a help file for a WinForms app in Visual Studio 2010. Ideally, I'd like to use a tool that integrates with Visual Studio, rather than a totally separate tool.
In the past I've used HTML Help Workshop, but this is ancient, and I recall it was a little funky to use. I also know there was a tool built into the Visual Studio 2005 SDK, but I need something for 2010.
Here are your options...
If you want Microsoft's documentation generator with VS integration:
Sandcastle Help File Builder for help file generation
DocProject to integrate it into VS
Although, it appears that DocProject doesn't quite support VS2010 yet.
For the Non-MS solution there's GhostDoc, which does support VS 2010 integration and appears to be a better solution.
For options that don't integrate into Visual Studio:
DoxyGen
Docu
NDoc3
it is an awkward target for tool vendors. In most shops, the help is authored by professional writers that don't have any use for Visual Studio in their day-to-day activities. Third party authoring tools like RoboHelp is their preferred weapon of choice.
The VS2005 SDK tool you probably saw was HelpStudio Lite, a product of Innovasys. There is no version available that integrates with VS2010 and judging from a forum post they have no intention of releasing one. Their Document X! product however does, sounds like what you ought to take a look at. The eval version is available for download from here.
I remember that a year or so ago some people on Joel's The Business of Software forum were recommending HelpNDoc.
Forum discussion: http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.359131.10
As others have said, you can convert the triple slash XML MSDN-style help using Sandcastle on all class-level members and objects
/// <summary>
/// I am a method help Header
/// </summary>
/// <param name="parm1">info for param 1</param>
/// <param name="parm2">info for parm2</param>
/// <remarks>Some Extra Info</remarks>
public override void MeMethod(SourceElement rootElm, Subject subject){
...
Here is the link to Sandscastle
A more feature-rich help generator that integrates with Visual Studio 2010 and generates multiple help formats is VSDocMan . It includes a WYSIWYG comment editor, and actually comments some of your code for you. Extremely useful
ghost doc with documentx or sandcastle is the way to go...Rest is all still very primitive when it comes to 2010. If you have project both c# and C++ then documentx will be the way if its just C# then any one is good.
If the audience for your help file is the user of the application html help 2 is not usable, you will still need to create a chm file. The tool which can do this for your from your winforms application is Help Generator for Visual Studio, which takes away a lot of work in preparing the help and linking it to the forms.
Probably doesn't integrate with VS2010 but I remember using RoboHelp back around '97 and it was ok:ish then so if I needed to write helpfiles now I'd probably give that another look since it seems like it's still around here. Fairly expensive though it seems but if you've got some Adobe licenses (which isn't totally unsual for a development shop) for some other reason maybe you've already got this?
Html Help, is replaced by Html Help 2.
http://www.mshelpwiki.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Help2
Just been doing a lot of research and after testing various tools the http://www.helpgenerator.com/ is the fastest way to put together a help system.

Silverlight - where do you start (for free)?

First I've read loads of posts and sites that recommend going to http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/ to get started but I do not have visual studio and I'm not going to purchase it just to 'maybe' learn some silverlight that I'm not going to be able to use for a little while.
The reason being that I've already installed visual studio and all the other things required during a quiet period of work, then another project came up and by the time I got back to thinking about silverlight the trial period has finished.
I have not done C# or XAML (mainly Java, AS3 & MXML, hence the lack of MS tools) but I'd like to look into silverlight when I'm quiet to create some test projects and to determine where I can use it if anywhere. Is there a toolset that will let me learn and use all that is required without purchasing the software (perhaps it would have a watermark like the flex datacharts used to have, unless you purchased them, maybe an eclipse plugin - although I imagine I'm being a bit optimistic here).
If there isn't such a thing then perhaps MS should look into this, Adobe recently let anyone unemployed/students etc to get flexbuilder for free to increase its uptake. That would be great is MS did something similar.
If you are a student, you can get professional Microsoft tools for free through the Dreamspark program. http://www.dreamspark.com
You can download Blend preview 3 and visual studio 2010 for free and use it. You have the tools and knowledge now ;-)
Check out Bizspark too.
Allegedly, you can now use one of Microsoft's free "Express" development systems to develop Silverlight apps.
http://www.bluerosegames.com/SilverlightBrassTacks/post/You-can-now-write-Silverlight-apps-in-Visual-Web-Developer-Express.aspx
In addition to the free-as-in-free-beer options from MS that other answers mention: if you only want to play around with Silverlight for now, consider trying Moonlight -- it may not yet be ready for production work, but nevertheless usable for learning purposes.
One place you can go is to the express web site on Microsoft.com. You can get free, albeit trimmed back, versions of the current release of Visual Studio and SQL Server there.
You can also get a trial version of Expression Blend 2. Blend is a design oriented tool for creating Silverlight applications.
You can also usually find betas of upcoming releases without much trouble.
Silverlight + Eclipse:
http://www.eclipse4sl.org/download/
And how to workaround Express for SL
http://www.informikon.com/blog/howto-silverlight-and-visual-studio-express.html
Good luck
Braulio

Is it possible to develop with Silverlight on a Mac?

I've been searching through the Microsoft Silverlight site, and I am guessing the answer to my question will be no.
But is there any non official or official version of the Silverlight development SDK for Mac OS?
I want to avoid installing Windows, but I want to develop in Silverlight.
The answer is yes, you surely can. You will need to use eclipse. It isn't as easy, but it sure is possible.
Good luck!
Link Heaven:
Eclipse 4 Silverlight
A video of Shawn Wildermuth showing this at the MIX09 Conference
There is also MonoDevelop which is going to support it soon, but its not quite there.
Assuming the answer you get does turn out to be "No"...
I use a VM (Parallels) to run Windows XP on my Mac Pro. The performance of Visual Studio 2008 is actually fine in this setup.
I'm using Mac OS X to develop with Silverlight 3, using IronRuby and IronPython and TextMate. It is very pleasant to use!
You can grab the Silverlight 3 Beta Runtime for Mac here and use it together with AgDlr. Grab the binaries of AgDlr here.
If you want to see samples of code that do work this way, have a look at AgDlr demos.
hope this helps!

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