BetterWpfControls

A collection of WPF controls and panels: some are new, others are enhanced versions of the controls that ship with WPF. The library targets .NET 10 (net10.0-windows).

Getting started

Reference the project from your WPF application:

<ProjectReference Include="..\BetterWpfControls\BetterWpfControls\BetterWpfControls.csproj" />

and import the namespaces in XAML:

xmlns:bwc="clr-namespace:BetterWpfControls;assembly=BetterWpfControls"
xmlns:bwcPanels="clr-namespace:BetterWpfControls.Panels;assembly=BetterWpfControls"

The default styles live in Themes/Generic.xaml and are picked up automatically. The solution contains a demo application (BetterWpfControls.Demo) that shows every control.

dotnet build BetterWpfControls.sln

Controls

TabControl

A TabControl for many tabs:

• Scrolling. When the tabs do not fit, scroll buttons appear at both ends of the strip.
• Quick links. A menu button lists every tab, so you can jump to one that is scrolled out of view; the active tab is marked. It is shown only while tabs are cut off; ShowQuickLinksButton="False" hides it.
• Locked tabs. bwcPanels:ScrollablePanel.IsLocked="True" keeps a tab in place while the others scroll.
• SelectItemOnScroll decides whether scrolling also selects the next tab.
• ScrollToLeftContent / ScrollToRightContent replace the scroll buttons with your own content. A button inside it marked bwcPanels:ScrollablePanel.IsScroller="True" gets the scroll command.

<bwc:TabControl ItemsSource="{Binding Documents}" SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedDocument}">
    <bwc:TabItem Header="Summary" bwcPanels:ScrollablePanel.IsLocked="True" />
</bwc:TabControl>

MenuButton

A button that opens a menu for a small set of related commands. Each item runs Command with the item as parameter. With ShowSelection="True" the selected item is marked.

SplitButton

A button with a primary command and a menu of variations, for a command that is mostly used one way.

ScrollButton

A flat button with a chevron (Direction="Left" or "Right"). It is the default scroll button of ScrollablePanel and the TabControl, and can be used on its own.

TreeListBox

Shows very large trees with virtualization: the tree is flattened into a list on the fly, and the list reuses the virtualization of ListBox / VirtualizingStackPanel.

Panels

• ScrollablePanel – scrolls its children when there is not enough room for all of them; the header panel of the TabControl.
• ResizablePanel – shrinks its children when there is not enough room, longest ones first, until all have the same size.

Other controls

• AutoCompleteTextBox – a text box that shows suggestions while typing.
• ImageButton – a chrome-less button that shows an image.
• CollapsibleGridSplitter – collapses a grid row or column with one click.
• ContentAdorner – an Adorner that shows any UIElement.
• ContentBox – a button that shows additional content in a popup.

Theming

The menu and the scroll buttons draw their chevrons in Foreground, so they follow the text colour of their surroundings. The hover backgrounds are semi-transparent and work on light and dark backgrounds. For a theme of your own, set the brushes in a style and bind them to your theme resources:

Control	Property	Used for
MenuButton	Foreground	Chevron and item text
	HoverBackground	Toggle button under the mouse or while the menu is open
	PopupBackground, PopupBorderBrush	Menu popup
	ItemHighlightBackground	Menu item under the mouse
	SelectionAccent	Bar next to the selected item (with ShowSelection)
ScrollButton	Foreground	Chevron
	HoverBackground	Button under the mouse
	CornerRadius	Rounded corners of the hover background

<Style TargetType="{x:Type bwc:ScrollButton}">
    <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource MyTextBrush}" />
    <Setter Property="HoverBackground" Value="{DynamicResource MyHoverBrush}" />
</Style>

A TabControl with a custom template uses its own MenuButton as quick-links button (PART_QuickLinksHost); give that one the style:

<bwc:MenuButton x:Name="PART_QuickLinksHost" Style="{StaticResource MyMenuButtonStyle}" />