Toolbox

The Toolbox in Microsoft Expression Blend enables you to create and modify objects in your application. You create the objects by selecting the tool and drawing on the artboard with your mouse. You can also change the objects on the artboard by using handles, or you can modify their properties in the Properties panel.

Note

The Toolbox looks slightly different depending on whether you are working on a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Microsoft Silverlight 1.0, or Silverlight 2 project.

These tools are available in the Toolbox when you work on a WPF application

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Selection tools   Used for selection and direct selection (nested objects and path segments) of objects and paths.

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Path tools   Pen, Pencil.

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View tools   Used to adjust the view of the artboard, such as for panning, zooming, and camera orbiting for 3D.

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The Camera Orbit tool is not available when you work on a Silverlight 1.0 or Silverlight 2 project.
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Shape tools   Rectangle, Ellipse, Line.

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Brush tools   Used to work with the visual attributes of an object, such as transforming a brush, painting an object, or selecting the attributes of one object to apply them to another object.

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Layout panels   Grid, Canvas, StackPanel, WrapPanel, DockPanel, ScrollViewer, Border, UniformGrid, Viewbox.

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Only the Canvas panel is available when you work on a Silverlight 1.0 project. Additionally, only the Grid, Canvas, StackPanel, ScrollViewer, and Border panels are available in a Silverlight 2 project.
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Object tools   Used to draw the most common objects on the artboard, such as paths, shapes, layout panels, text, and controls.

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Some objects are not available when you work on a Silverlight 1.0 or Silverlight 2 project.
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Text controls   TextBox, RichTextBox, TextBlock, PasswordBox, Label, FlowDocumentScrollViewer.

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Only the TextBlock control is available when you work on a Silverlight 1.0 project. Additionally, only the TextBox, TextBlock, and PasswordBox are available in a Silverlight 2 project.
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Asset tools   Used to access the Asset Library and to show the most recently used asset from the library.

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Some assets are not available when you work on a Silverlight 1.0 or Silverlight 2 project.
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Common controls   Button, CheckBox, ComboBox, ListBox, RadioButton, ScrollBar, Slider, TabControl, GridSplitter.

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These controls are not available when you work on a Silverlight 1.0 project. For information about creating a button, see Create a button that controls a storyboard in a Silverlight application. Additionally, the TabControl and GridSplitter are not available in a Silverlight 2 project unless you add a reference to the System.Windows.Controls.dll assembly. For more information, see Import a custom control by adding a reference.

See also

Concepts

Layout

Controls

Working with objects and properties

Drawing shapes and paths

Text and typography