Tools panel

You can use the Tools panel in Blend for Visual Studio 2012 to create and modify objects in your application. You create the objects by selecting a 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.

For more information, see Properties panel.

Note

The Tools panel looks slightly different depending on whether you are working on a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) or Microsoft Silverlight project.

Tools available in the Tools panel when you work on a WPF application

	Selection tools   Use to select of objects and paths. The Direct Selection tool is used to select nested objects and path segments.		Path tools   Pen, Pencil.
	View tools   Use to adjust the view of the artboard, such as for panning, zooming, and camera orbiting for 3D. Note The Camera Orbit tool is not available when you work on a Silverlight project.		Shape tools   Rectangle, Ellipse, Line.
	Brush tools   Use 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.		Layout panels   Grid, Canvas, StackPanel, WrapPanel, DockPanel, ScrollViewer, Border, UniformGrid, Viewbox. Note Only the Grid, Canvas, StackPanel, ScrollViewer, and Border panels are available in a Silverlight project.
	Object tools   Use to draw the most common objects on the artboard, such as paths, shapes, layout panels, text, and controls.		Text controls   TextBox, RichTextBox, TextBlock, PasswordBox, Label, FlowDocumentScrollViewer. Note Only the TextBox, TextBlock, and PasswordBox controls are available in a Silverlightproject.
	Asset tools   Use to access the Assets panel and to show the most recently used asset from the library. For more information, see Assets panel.		Common controls   Button, CheckBox, ComboBox, ListBox, RadioButton, ScrollBar, Slider, TabControl, GridSplitter. Note The TabControl and GridSplitter controls are not visible in a Silverlight project, but you can select them from the Assets panel.

See Also

Concepts

Arranging objects

Choosing and using interactive controls

Working with objects and properties

Drawing text

Other Resources

Drawing objects