Introducing the Blend Art-board

The one thing I like about the Blend is the idea of moving towards a system where the designer, architect and programmer can visualize and talk to each other with ease. Not only intuitive user interfaces is the order of the day but building them fast and with ease is also on the high priority with software manufacturers. This post is to introduce you to the different parts of the Blend Software's UI.

The work surface is referred to as the artborad where you will design your Silverlight or WPF applications. 

The artboard is your work surface, where you can visually design a document in your application by drawing objects and modifying them.

1. The artboard background color can be changed to suit anything you want, it is like the canvas where the majority of your work will be done.  To change the color you can use the Tools >> Options menu to do so. 

2. XAML Editor : The code that is generated is called XAML and can be edited in this window. If you look at indicator 5 it will give you options to be in Split view which means (design+code), XAML View which means you can directly edit the code. 

3. The Artboard controls have five key controls which are snapping on and off the gridlines, snaplines, showing annotations and turning on and off rendering effects. This area also shows the zoom percentages that can be controlled by clicking on the list down. 

4. This is the area where the filenames of your project appear. 

5. See point number 2. 

When you are working on a project you will also see certain tabs on the left and the right which can be turned on and off based upon the objects and actions you are performing on them. I have included these screen shots for your reference, in case you are following for the first time after you have installed Expression Blend. 

Enjoy..Next Time we will go ahead and create a roll over application.