Actipro Ribbon for WPF

Actipro Ribbon for WPF is a control suite that implements an Office 2007-like user interface for the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and meets all of the core Microsoft licensing requirements for implementation of a ribbon user interface. Actipro Ribbon for WPF is part of the Actipro WPF Studio. Actipro WPF Studio currently includes: Actipro Ribbon, Actipro Wizard, Actipro Bar Code and the Actipro Shared Library. Actipro WPF Studio licenses include one year of free upgrades to any new WPF product versions and also any new WPF component products introduced. All components included in the suite have extensive Visual Studio 2008 Designer functionality.

Actipro Ribbon for WPF has been designed from the ground up to follow WPF best practices, be extremely configurable, use a command-driven model, and allow for reproduction of nearly all the user interface features found in Office.

Control Features

• Full implementation of the core Microsoft ribbon user interface requirements.
• Ribbon bar that has tabs containing groups capable of hosting child controls.
• Built-in control types include buttons, checkable buttons, popup buttons, split buttons, checkable split buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, textboxes, comboboxes, font family comboboxes, font size comboboxes, separators, labeled separators, in-ribbon galleries, popup galleries, and color picker galleries.
• Gallery controls that can be used in-ribbon or on popups and support data binding to any source, rendering via templates or custom draw, animated scrolling, multiple resizing options, selection tracking, categories, filtering, and zooming-in on item mouse over.
• Color picker gallery control supports multiple categories of colors and optionally auto-generates lighter/darker shades of colors.
• Use any built-in ribbon control standalone anywhere outside of the ribbon.
• Ability to add any control, including UserControls, anywhere into the ribbon, popups, menus, or the application menu.
• Multiple ways to lay out controls on the ribbon via the use of various panels.
• Application menu, with menu items and footer buttons.
• Ability to place any control on the right side of the application menu, such as a recent documents list.
• Quick access toolbar that can be displayed above or below the ribbon.
• Powerful cloning framework for customizing the QAT and persisting changes between application sessions. Full source for a Customize QAT dialog page is included.
• Contextual tab groups whose visibility can be toggled on and off.
• RibbonWindow class that can be used to provide a Office-like window appearance, even without the use of a ribbon control.

Appearance Features

• Visual styles that match Office 2007.
• Built-in blue, black and silver color schemes, with the ability to generate an entire custom color scheme based on a single color.
• Any of the hundreds of colors in a color scheme may be individually modified as needed.
• Reuse stock brushes and colors on external controls such as ListBoxes to keep a consistent UI.
• Styles for StatusBars and their items, ScrollViewers, ScrollBars, and numerous other controls.
• Fade and other color animations throughout the user interface.
• Vista glass support.

Layout, Globalization, and Accessibility Features

• Automated ribbon control resizing that can be fully customized so that less important controls scale down or collapse sooner.
• Ability to save on screen real estate by minimizing the ribbon.
• Ribbon can collapse when it becomes smaller than a certain width or height.
• Key tips that provide quick keyboard access to any control.
• Screen tips that can be assigned to any control and support on-the-fly content creation.
• Right-to-left support is fully integrated for languages such as Hebrew or Arabic.
• Scale the ribbon up or down to any size.

Command Model

• Takes full advantage of the WPF command model.
• Commands can provide various UI elements such as labels and images so that controls with the same command can automatically get the same user interface.

Code and Requirements

• Includes detailed documentation and a sample project that demos nearly every feature.
• Written in 100% pure C# and is based on the Windows Presentation Foundation framework.
• Requires the .NET 3.0 or 3.5 run-time framework.
• Full XAML support and XBAP compatibility.
• Extensive Visual Studio 2008 designer capabilities.
• Visual Studio 2008 and/or Expression Blend are recommended development tools for this product.