Creating a common window look in WPF - wpf

Question

How would I create a common window look in WPF? I'm not talking about just styling the window, I'm mean having a window that has a border, grid, and some other things in it.
Thanks.

Answer 1

You can create a ControlTemplate for the window. Here is a pretty basic example that has some controls and triggers. You can easily add more elements to make it fit your needs.
<ControlTemplate x:Key="MyWindowTemplate" TargetType="{x:Type Window}">
<Border x:Name="WindowBorder" Style="{DynamicResource WindowBorderStyle}">
<Grid>
<Border Margin="4,4,4,4" Padding="0,0,0,0" x:Name="MarginBorder">
<AdornerDecorator>
<ContentPresenter/>
</AdornerDecorator>
</Border>
<ResizeGrip Visibility="Collapsed" IsTabStop="false" HorizontalAlignment="Right" x:Name="WindowResizeGrip"
VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />
</Grid>
</Border>
<ControlTemplate.Triggers>
<MultiTrigger>
<MultiTrigger.Conditions>
<Condition Property="ResizeMode" Value="CanResizeWithGrip"/>
<Condition Property="WindowState" Value="Normal"/>
</MultiTrigger.Conditions>
<Setter Property="Visibility" TargetName="WindowResizeGrip" Value="Visible"/>
<Setter Property="Margin" TargetName="MarginBorder" Value="4,4,4,20" />
</MultiTrigger>
<Trigger Property="WindowState" Value="Maximized">
<Setter Property="CornerRadius" TargetName="WindowBorder" Value="0,0,0,0"/>
</Trigger>
</ControlTemplate.Triggers>
</ControlTemplate>
You can use this ControlTemplate by setting the template property of the Window:
Template="{StaticResource MyWindowTemplate}"
You will want to use this in conjunction with a style like this:
<Style x:Key="MyWindowStyle" TargetType="{x:Type Window}">
<Setter Property="AllowsTransparency" Value="False" />
<Setter Property="WindowStyle" Value="SingleBorderWindow" />
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.WindowTextBrushKey}}"/>
<Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent" />
<Setter Property="ShowInTaskbar" Value="False" />
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Window}">
<Border>
<AdornerDecorator>
<ContentPresenter/>
</AdornerDecorator>
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
And set the style on your Window like this:
Style="{StaticResource MyWindowStyle}"

Answer 2

What I ended up doing was creating a base class that created the UI code that I wanted in every window. This allows me to set events for controls and have the event subscription in the base class. If there is a better way of doing this, like using xaml, I'd like to know.
public WindowBase()
{
Initialized += WindowBase_Initialized;
}
private void WindowBase_Initialized( object sender, EventArgs e )
{
Border border = new Border();
border.SetResourceReference( Control.StyleProperty, "WindowBorder" );
border.Child = new ContentPresenter { Content = this.Content};
this.Content = border;
}