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Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed
- By Brennon Williams
- Published Jun 3, 2008 by Sams. Part of the Unleashed series.
- Copyright 2008
- Dimensions: 7x9-1/8
- Pages: 600
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-672-32931-X
- ISBN-13: 978-0-672-32931-9
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Product Author Bios
Brennon Williams is among the top .NET developers in the UK, consistently contracted by leading consultancies for cutting edge development projects. He has an extremely wide skill set as a hybrid designer/developer, with experience in Flash, 3D Object Modeling, and DirectX based development. Brennon’s UK company X-Coders Limited is the preferred Blend/WPF training and development provider for some of the World’s largest companies.
For almost 15 years, Brennon has worked in several countries as a consultant software developer. He is currently employed as XAML Architect for SmithBayes in the UK and Dev Lead/XAML Architect for Motorola’s WPF project in the United States and Sri Lanka. He is also creating his ExpressTrain video tutorial network online at ww.learnexpressionstudio.com. When he schedules an hour or two of free time, he enjoys nothing more than having a BBQ with his wife and kids in the backyard.
Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed is about learning a new tool for designers, but also learning a new mindset for developers. Expression Blend enables the delivery of rich interactive applications, for the web as well as the desktop, allowing you to take graphical assets and blend them with functional .NET code through the power of XAML and the WPF platform. Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed also features a C# Primer, introducing designers to the .NET Framework. .NET allows the reader to extend the functionality of many of the WPF elements used in Expression Blend. The most important concept for the reader to grasp is that Blend and Visual Studio together are about facilitating the kind of user experience everyone wants from the applications they use. This book will give you the skill set whether you are a designer or developer; from there, you just need to use a little imagination.
Detailed information on how to…
- Design and develop WPF applications
- Use Blend’s animation workflows
- Design and implement WPF template types
- Create and manage Resource Dictionaries
- Master WPF Style templates
- Handle control events
- Understand advanced control properties in XAML/Blend/C#
- Create customized controls through inheritance
- Understand the fundamentals of XAML-based design and development
- Implement effective XML, CLR Data binding, and XAML template binding
- Extend XAML functionality with C# code
- Implement video and audio in your applications
- Use Blend as part of your designer/developer workflow
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Rushed and scattered, but best resource available, By dex3703 "dex3703" (Renton, WA USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed (Paperback)
I have eagerly awaited this book since I first learned of it last fall, when I found Brennon William's XCoders training site. Based on the quality of his Blend traning videos, and the obvious passion he has for Blend, I had great expectations for this book.I hoped the book would provide a well-organized and comprehensive training program for a complex piece of software. By and large the book does do so, but overall I am disappointed with the presentation and organization. The book has clearly been rushed to production, lacking not only editorial guidance but basic copyediting. The tone is strangely giddy and the examples seem poorly thought out and disorganized. For example, the Twitter example application in Chapter 2 has you create a Twitter account so you can databind to the RRS feed, and see how to connect a WPF application to the feed. The problems I found here were 1) Twitter has apparently changed since the book's writing, as I couldn't find a way to get my own RRS... Read more
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
No longer of any value whatsoever, By
This review is from: Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed (Paperback)
This book is for Expression Blend 2. Expression Blend 4 has already been released and they differ so far apart that there is really no value anymore. Microsoft is very commited to Expression Studio and as such they're releasing a new version every year at the moment and the versions have so much new functionality and differ so far apart that you can't get any value out of it.A brief overview book like "Introducing Microsoft Expression Studio" is a much better buy. At least it contains relevant information. Not sure why there is no newer unleashed book for 3. Contains no information on Sketchflow or 3D (the book only knows about 2D as that's what was available in Blend 2). Expression Blend 4 Unleashed is available for preorder and if you haven't gotten into Expression Blend 4 yet I would advise getting that book when it's released. It's by the same author and hopefully this time he fixed the font, it's horrendous :) That said, all in... Read more
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Excellent book for learning Blend, By Samer A "Samer" (Texas,USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed (Paperback)
If you're new to XAML/WPF and especially if you're new to Expression Blend, I would recommend getting this book to start you off. It is light on code explanations, since there are other books that are specifically designed to teach you XAML and WPF. So if you're looking for something to teach you how to write it yourself, then I'd suggest another book.I've had Blend on my PC for some time now but always felt like I was only scratching the surface of its capabilities--and I was right. After working with this book, I've discovered just how easy it is to design user controls and entire interfaces using the tools Blend has. Things that confused me in the past are now pretty clear. Blend has so many embedded and somewhat hidden controls that it's easy to pass over things that end up being really useful. I have one small gripe with this book: I wish it were in color. WPF is all about creating visually stunning UIs and UIEs yet this book only shows everything in gray... Read more |
Online Sample Chapter
Introduction to Microsoft Expression Blend
Table of Contents
Part I Overview
1 Introduction to Expression Blend . . . 3
2 Welcome to the New World . . . 31
3 Expression Blend Panels . . . 63
4 XAML for Beginners . . . 91
Part II Going with the Flow
5 UIElement: Control Embedding . . . 105
6 Panel-Based Containers . . . 131
Part III Using All the New Stuff
7 Using the Blend Toolbox: Tools and Common Controls. . . 147
8 An Example Control Using Just the Tools Palette . . . 175
9 Using the Blend Asset Library . . . 209
10 Visual Studio: C# Primer. . . 269
Part IV Extended Graphic Tools
11 Graphic Items. . . 323
Part V Templates and Data
12 Templates. . . 359
13 Data Binding . . . 391
Part VI Controlling Controls
14 Animations with Storyboards . . . 415
15 Commands . . . 437
16 Using Resources for Skins. . . 459
17 Working with Windows. . . 475
Part VII Advanced Topics
18 Creating a Custom Control . . . 489
19 Using 3D in Blend . . . 511
20 Controlling Media (Music or Video) . . . 523
Index . . . 555
Sample Pages
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