Feeds : Expression Blend and Design Blog


      view feed content Hello DeepZoomTools.DLL : Deep Zoom Image Tile Generation Made Easy (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   4 d and 20 h ago
In our most recent release of Deep Zoom Composer, one of the major changes we made was to change how we generated the image tiles both for designing as well as exporting your Deep Zoom Content. In the past, ever since our first release at MIX, our image encoding was done using a combination of SparseImageTool.exe and ImageTool.exe command line tools. Starting with this release, we have retired those tools and have shifted to a preview version of a .NET based DLL that provides image generation capabilities....(read more)
[Tips and Tricks Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Deep Zoom Composer Updated: Seadragon Ajax Support, New API, and more! (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   6 d and 16 h ago
Today, we released another update to Deep Zoom Composer, and you can download it from the following location: Download Deep Zoom Composer NOTE: Be sure to uninstall any earlier versions of Deep Zoom Composer before attempting to install our new version. Most of the work in this release has been under the hood to fix bugs and usability issues, but we did add a few features that you may find cool to use! Seadragon Ajax Support One of the biggest changes we made was to revamp our Export UI and provide...(read more)
[Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content 2.5D UserControl for Silverlight 2 (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   13 d and 16 h ago
2.5D (two-and-a-half D) is a way of using 2D objects to give a very convincing illusion of 3D. I’ve provided an implementation that has no lighting, materials, lines or polygons. But it does enable you to locate 2D (that is, flat) objects at x,y,z coordinates and place the camera where you want it. The implementation then projects the objects onto the camera, scaling and translating them appropriately, and handles mouse input to move the camera. You can see a small example demonstrating this below:...(read more)
[Expression Blend Microsoft Silverlight Tips and Tricks ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content PDC 2008 Session – Microsoft Expression Blend: Tips and Tricks (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   17 d and 22 h ago
If you were unable to attend the PDC this year, don’t worry! Because all of the sessions have been recorded and posted online for you to view at your leisure, you won’t miss out on much. One session that my be of particular interest to you is Pete Blois’s and Doug Olson’s talk about Expression Blend: You can view the talk online by clicking the following link: http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC47/ The above link also contains downloadable versions of the video along with the PowerPoint slide deck...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Blend 2 SP1 + WPF Toolkit = Visual State Manager for WPF (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   31 d and 20 h ago
The Blend 2 Service Pack 1 contains a secret ingredient that can be activated by installing the WPF Toolkit and then setting a Registry value. In a nutshell, this ingredient is Visual State Manager support for Windows Presentation Foundation projects. As you know, Visual State Manager is built into Silverlight 2 but the WPF Toolkit gives you an early peek into the future of VSM-for-WPF. The WPF Toolkit is a collection of WPF features and components that are being made available outside of the normal...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Simulating Sample Data in Blend 2 SP1 (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   34 d and 23 h ago
Using sample data can make designing your Silverlight 2 applications more predictable. Given some data, you have a lot of flexibility in designing around this data in Expression Blend. The challenge is that there are are many cases where you simply won’t be able to see your data on the design surface. Think of an example where some data is displayed only after you query a web service. One way around this would be to hard-code the data to display. The problem is that this leaves you with extra work...(read more)
[Expression Blend Tips and Tricks ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Deep Zoom Composer Updated for Silverlight 2 (And More!) (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   47 d ago
Yesterday was a busy day, for we released an updated version of Deep Zoom Composer as well! You can download the updated version from the following link: Download Deep Zoom Composer This version of Deep Zoom Composer presents several under-the-hood changes to improve reliability. We are getting close to wrapping up work on version 1 of this powertoy, so we are focusing on improving our existing features in lieu of adding anything new. Expect to see some details on some of those under the hood changes...(read more)
[Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Download Expression Blend 2 SP1 (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   48 d ago
Yesterday night, to coincide with the release of Silverlight 2 , we released Expression Blend 2 SP1. You can download it by clicking on the following link: Download Expression Blend 2 SP1 While Expression Blend 2 allowed you to easily design Silverlight 1 and WPF applications, this service pack extends that support to Silverlight 2 as well. You now have the ability to take advantage of Silverlight 2 features such as control templating / styling, visual state manager, font embedding / subsetting,...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Silverlight 2 RC Compatible Deep Zoom Project Templates (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [2 views] 64 d ago
Because the Silverlight 2 RC that was released is aimed primarily at developers wishing to update their projects to the final version of Silverlight 2 due out sometime this year, we didn’t provide an update to Deep Zoom Composer because most everyone who views Deep Zoom content will still be on Silverlight 2 Beta 2. Instead, we have provided you with the updated project templates that are compatible with Silverlight 2 RC: Download Updated Deep Zoom Composer Project Templates Once you have downloaded...(read more)
[Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Expression Blend 2 SP1 Preview Released (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   66 d ago
Today, we have released a preview of Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1 that allows you to create content for the release candidate of Silverlight 2. You can download the Service Pack from the following location: Download Expression Blend 2 SP1 Preview This Service Pack provides you with all of the functionality you had with our earlier Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview. Besides allowing you to create new projects for WPF, Silverlight 1, and Silverlight 2 RC, we are also exposing new platform...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Editing in Visual Studio 2008 Instead of Visual Studio 2005 (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   68 d ago
In Expression Blend 2, when you choose to edit a code file or insert an event handler for an event, by default, Visual Studio will be launched. If you have multiple versions of Visual Studio (VS) installed, though, you may find that a different version of VS than the one you intended to open will get launched. The most common case is where you have both VS 2005 and VS 2008 installed, but VS 2005 gets launched by Blend instead of VS 2008. The fix for this involves editing your registry. From the Run...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Deep Zoom Developer Resources (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   83 d ago
Since we released Deep Zoom Composer a while ago at MIX, we relied extensively on all of you to both create cool things using it as well as suggest new features for subsequent releases. Another major area that many of you have helped us with is documenting some of the cool things that you all have done with Deep Zoom. In this post, I’ll try to point out some of the cool documentation to help you out in your deep zoom quest: Working with Collections & Deep Zoom Primer Jaime Rodriguez provides...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content How to Animate a Drawing Line (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [1 views] 3 months ago
In Blend you use the Pen tool to draw lines and they appear in the XAML as <Path> elements. But after you’ve drawn your lines and you test your application, the Paths appear immediately: they don’t replay the gestures you used to create them. But sometimes that’s the effect you want, so how do you do that? The manual way is only practical if you have very few points. First draw out a Path consisting of straight segments. Then create a new Storyboard, move the playhead forward...(read more)
[Expression Blend Tips and Tricks ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Do You Want to Help Implement Interesting Ideas? The Blend Team needs you! (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   3 months ago
A few months ago, we asked you for feedback on what are some of the things you would like to see improved in Expression Blend. You all had a lot of great suggestions...A LOT. If you are interested in helping us both implement some of the feedback but also help define cool features,  we are looking for a Program Manager to join our team! The specific details can be found on the following link: http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=348E3A82-BD7B-48B1-B1FA-FFBC84A86486...(read more)
[Expression Blend ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Deep Zoom Composer Updated (Again!) (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [1 views] 3 months ago
To address many of the issues you all had with the PhotoZoom functionality, we have released an updated preview version of Deep Zoom Composer. You can download the updated version from the following link: Download Deep Zoom Composer Be sure to uninstall your current version of Deep Zoom Composer before attempting to install the latest version. The issues we fixed revolve around making the log-in screen more clear and ensuring uploads do not time out. More specifically, you need to create an account...(read more)
[Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Download the New Deep Zoom Composer Preview! (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [4 views] 4 months ago
A few hours ago, we released another update to Deep Zoom Composer. Click on the link below to download it: Download Deep Zoom Composer Some of the major new features outside of the usual bug, performance, and stability changes include Panoramic Stitching and PhotoZoom Upload. PhotoZoom Upload To help make uploading and sharing your creations with others easy, Deep Zoom Composer nicely integrates with the Live Labs PhotoZoom service: http://photozoom.mslivelabs.com . When you choose to Export, the...(read more)
[Microsoft Silverlight Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Collection of Expression Blend Learning Resources (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [3 views] 4 months ago
This post will try to showcase an updated list of useful (and free!) training material available for Expression Blend: Training Resources from Microsoft Expression Blend and Design Blog: Tips & Tricks Expression Community Expression Blend (Online) User Guide Expression Blend Tutorials MIX 07/08 Video Sessions Building Rich Client Experiences with Blend and WPF (by Celso Gomes and Christian Schormann) Building Rich Web Experiences (by Celso Gomes) Applications = Designers + Developers (by Celso...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Where do You Go to Learn More About Expression Blend? (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   4 months ago
One of the things that we are planning on doing is providing easier access to learning content. Besides the influx of learning content (videos, articles, etc.) we will be generating ourselves, we also want to link to content around the web that many of you like as well. Please comment below on sites, blogs, etc. that you have found very useful for learning more about Expression Blend. In the future, I will create a follow-up post that will hopefully act as a central location we can point individuals...(read more)
[Expression Blend ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Animating control Content between States (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [2 views] 4 months ago
You’re probably very familiar with Content in WPF and Silverlight. For example, two Buttons can use the same Template but can look different by virtue of having different Content in them. And the Content property is of type object so it can be Text, or an Image, or a Panel containing yet more elements, or anything else. In the Template, the uncertainty of what the Content might be is taken care of by the ContentPresenter element which is analogous to a TV screen showing whatever Content happens to...(read more)
[Expression Blend Tips and Tricks ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Nibbles Tutorials: Snack Tutorials for Hungry Designers (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   5 months ago
A great site that covers designer-oriented Expression Blend topics is Celso Gomes’s Nibbles Tutorials site: This all-Silverlight site features some nice articles on how you can use Blend to create WPF, Silverlight 1, and Silverlight 2 applications. He recently updated it cover the new features in Blend 2.5 such as the Visual State Manager, so if you’ve been itching to learn more about it, head on over to his site . Cheers! Kirupa...(read more)
[Expression Blend ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Debugging Design-Time Exceptions (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   5 months ago
It’s not entirely uncommon for projects that run fine to not work when loaded into Blend for editing: There are a variety of issues that can cause this- some are bugs that we’re working to address, others are things that need to be fixed by the application developer. Unfortunately designability doesn’t always come free. The exception information that’s displayed often has some useful information, but for complex projects I can save some guessing by just debugging through it using VS. This post will...(read more)
[Expression Blend Tips and Tricks ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Localization and What Goes on Behind the Scenes (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   5 months ago
Many of you may not know that Expression Blend (and the entire Expression Studio) is available in eight languages other than English. In fact, we just released them earlier today! Here is a small screenshot of Expression Blend running Japanese: My name is Marco, and I help to create the versions of these products that ship in Japanese, German, Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese (simplified and traditional).  Creating the international versions of our products is a challenging process...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content What’s new in Deep Zoom Composer! (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   5 months ago
Yesterday, we released another update to Deep Zoom Composer, and you can download it for free from the following location: Download Deep Zoom Composer In case you are not familiar with this app, Deep Zoom Composer (DZC) allows you take images, arrange them on a design surface, and export them for use with the Deep Zoom technology found in Silverlight 2. You can see a really impressive demo at Hard Rock Cafe’s Memoribilia site where they use Deep Zoom to show you a lot of high-resolution imagery....(read more)
[Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Download Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview and Deep Zoom Composer (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [2 views] 5 months ago
Like we mentioned earlier this week , new preview versions of Expression Blend 2.5 and Deep Zoom Composer have been released today. You can download them from the following locations: Download Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview Download Deep Zoom Composer Both versions coincide with the launch of Silverlight 2 Beta 2, and they both have some cool new features besides just allowing you to create content targeting the latest version of Silverlight 2. We’ll have follow-up posts shortly giving you...(read more)
[Expression Blend Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Upcoming Expression Blend 2.5 Feature – Visual State Manager (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [1 views] 6 months ago
As many of you may have heard, Bill Gates announced during his TechEd keynote today that Silverlight 2 Beta 2 will be released later this week . To coincide with Silverlight 2 Beta 2, we will be releasing updated versions of Expression Blend 2.5 and Deep Zoom Composer as well. There are some nifty new tricks up Expression Blend 2.5’s sleeve for this release. One of them is known as the Visual State Manager, or VSM for short, which makes styling your controls easier. To learn more about this feature,...(read more)
[Expression Blend Tips and Tricks ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Using the KeySpline Editor to Add Animation Easing (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [5 views] 6 months ago
Previously on the blog I’ve explained how a KeySpline can be used to do animation easing . I also demonstrated a tool for converting an animation curve (in this case a Path drawn in Blend) into an actual animation . This time let’s look at the new KeySpline editor in Blend 2 and walk through an example of how to visualize and edit your easing graphically. If you want to follow along, create a new project (WPF or Silverlight) and draw a red-filled circular Ellipse at the top of the page to serve as...(read more)
[Expression Blend Tips and Tricks ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content What Would You Like to See in the Next Versions of Blend and Design? (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [1 views] 6 months ago
Even though we just shipped Expression Blend and Design 2 , we are already busy planning what to do for future releases. To better help us with our planning, we'd like to hear from you. What are some things that you would like to see in Blend and Design? What are some of the things that you wish were done differently? Also, what are some of the things in our products that you like? Let us know by posting in the comments below! We take your feedback very seriously, and your input goes a long way in...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content An Update to Deep Zoom Composer (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [2 views] 7 months ago
Ever since we released Deep Zoom Composer during MIX, there has been a ton of great feedback you have all sent us on what you liked and what you would like to see improved in future versions. To give you a sneak peek at where we are currently, we're releasing an updated version of Deep Zoom Composer for you all to play with: Download the Deep Zoom Composer Before installing this version, please uninstall earlier versions of Deep Zoom Composer. All of your older projects should still work, so don't...(read more)
[Deep Zoom Composer ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content Expression Blend 2 and Expression Design 2 Released! (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   [2 views] 7 months ago
In case you missed our announcements and 3rd party coverage , we shipped Expression Studio 2 yesterday! You can download trial versions of all our applications by visiting our Downloads Page ! This post will focus more on Expression Blend and Design, and since Expression Blend ships in its own box as well, check out our cool box design: Our version 2 release comes around just a year after we shipped version 1, and there have been a slew of new features that we’ve added. Many of you have already played...(read more)
[Expression Expression Blend Expression Design ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

      view feed content End to End Hands on Lab – Blend 2.5 and Silverlight 2! (Expression Blend and Design Blog)   7 months ago
Our colleagues in Microsoft Switzerland have published a comprehensive hands-on-lab that explains in detail everything you need to get started with creating Silverlight 2 applications using Blend 2.5. You can learn more and download the project files from here: Silverlight 2 Beta 1 Hands-on-Lab They cover a lot of great topics including templating, isolated storage, and more. Beyond just talking about it, they provide actual projects for you to play with. They even have a Deep Zoom collections demo:...(read more)

View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share