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Unify for Expression Blend 2

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Since the Blend Add-In framework came to light I’ve written a couple of utilities that are useful when using Blend, however I found it annoying that I had to close down Blend and re-open it from the command line with different arguments.

To get around that I’ve written an Add-In manager for Blend that I'm calling ‘Unify’ that allows you to load and configure multiple 3rd party add-ins without having to mess around with the command line.

You can install it from here (thanks to the help I got with WiX from Andy Burns) and I’d be interested in feedback.

Hopefully something like this will promote the creation of more 3rd party and community add-ins (like Colorful and Blend Intellisense).

After you’ve installed it there will be a new shortcut in the Microsoft Expression folder underneath ‘All Programs’.

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To use it, launch the new shortcut and then, once Blend has loaded, click Tools and select ‘Unify!’ from the menu.

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This will show a very dull dialog with the list of add-ins you’ve configured. The checkbox indicates whether the add-in will load when Blend launches. To add a new add-in select “Create new AddIn” and navigate to where the add-in assembly is installed. Click ‘Open’ and the add-in will be added to the list and will be loaded.

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Technorati Tags: Unify,Blend,Expression,Add in,add-in,addin,kuler,colorful

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2009
    This is fantastic! I expected someone from the community to do a "add-in manager add-in" ;) I'll definitely reference this one when I release the next version of the Colorful addin!

  • Anonymous
    February 11, 2009
    Ez a jó kis plugin elvégzi helyettün ka színsémák kiválasztásást