Control Styling Tips: PasswordBox

Hello!
In this article, I’d like to provide you with some information and tips that you’ll find useful when styling a Silverlight 3 PasswordBox.

Visual states. CommonStates (Normal, MouseOver and Disabled), FocusStates (Unfocused and Focused) and ValidationStates (Valid, InvalidUnfocused and InvalidFocused).

Template parts. ContentElement (FrameworkElement)

Try template binding: Background, BorderBrush, Foreground, BorderThickness or Padding.

Here’s some artwork you might want to try turning into a PasswordBox:

The XAML that corresponds to the above image is:

<Grid Height="20" Width="120">
      <Rectangle Fill="#FF333333" RadiusX="5" RadiusY="5"/>
      <TextBlock Margin="5,0" Foreground="White" Text="*****" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
</Grid>

To make a PasswordBox out of the above XAML:

• Select [Grid] and click Tools > Make Into Control > PasswordBox > OK.
   
• Select [Grid] . In the Parts panel, double-click ContentElement.
   
• Select [TextBlock] . Copy its Margin and VerticalAlignment property values to ContentElement. Delete [TextBlock] .
   
• In the Style, set Foreground to White.
   
• Scope up. Set Password to ‘abcde’ and PasswordChar to ‘*’.

You should now have a working PasswordBox!

- Steve