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Create content for Windows Phone

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Important

The ability to design Windows Phone projects in Blend for Visual Studio 2012 is available only when you install the Windows Phone SDK 8.0.

After you install the Windows Phone SDK, Blend enables you to quickly and easily build applications for Windows Phone. You can use the design tools in Blend to create your Windows Phone application, including Windows Phone templates, graphics and animation tools, built-in behaviors, and sample data.

After you’ve created your Windows Phone application, you can build and then preview it either in the built-in Windows Phone Emulator, or in a Windows Phone device attached to your computer.

Additional information about designing and developing applications for Windows Phone is available at Windows Phone Dev Center on MSDN.

Windows Phone templates

When you create a new Windows Phone project in Blend, you can choose from following Windows Phone project types:

  • Windows Phone App   A project for creating a Windows Phone application.

  • Windows Phone Databound App   A project for creating a Windows Phone application using List and Navigation controls with a basic Model-View-ViewModel architecture.

  • Windows Phone Control Library   A project for creating custom controls that can be reused across other Windows Phone applications.

  • Windows Phone Panorama App   A project for creating a Windows Phone application that uses the Panorama control to create a panorama-style application.

    For more information on the Panorama control, see Panorama Control Overview for Windows Phone on MSDN.

  • Windows Phone Pivot App   A project for creating a Windows Phone application that uses the Pivot control to create a tabbed-style application.

    For more information on the Pivot control, see the Pivot Control Overview for Windows Phone on MSDN.

When your new project opens, an artboard that simulates a Windows Phone screen appears in the document window.

Sample data

Blend makes it easy to design data-driven user interfaces without having access to live data. You can use the Data panel to generate meaningful sample data or to import sample data from an XML file or create sample data from a class. Sample data is available to controls on the artboard at design time. You can extensively customize your sample data details, and you can easily switch between using sample data and using live data at run time.

For more information, see Create sample data (Windows Phone).

Graphics tools

Blend supports the most common types of image files such as BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF. You can either drag supported image files from outside Blend, or use the Project menu to add files to your project. Image files are added to the artboard as Image objects.

After you add an image file to your project, you can add it to the artboard by double-clicking the image file name in the Projects panel, or by setting the Source property of an existing image control to the name of the image file. Alternately, you can drag the image directly to the artboard.

For more information, see Working with images and art (Windows Phone).

Objects

You can add an object to the artboard by selecting a tool in the Tools panel or in the Assets panel, or by selecting a styled or custom control in the Assets panel. You can also drag a styled control from the Resources panel, or drag resources from the Resources panel onto an existing object on the artboard to apply the resource to one of the properties of the object. In addition, you can drag images, sound files, video files, and other media directly from File Explorer into Blend, or copy images from other applications and paste them directly onto the artboard.

For more information about working with objects, see Working with objects and properties (Windows Phone).

Controls and control libraries

Blend provides an extensive list of controls that you can use to design your Windows Phone applications.

For more information about interactive controls, see Choosing and using interactive controls (Windows Phone).

If you want to create reusable components that can be added to the artboard just like a system control, you can create a user control in Blend. User controls can contain other controls, resources, and animation timelines, just like an application. The only difference is that the root object is a UserControl instead of a PhoneApplicationPage.

For more information about user controls, see Create a new user control (Windows Phone).

You can also create a library of UserControls that you can easily reuse throughout multiple Windows Phone projects by creating a Windows Phone control library.

For more information, see Create a project (Windows Phone).

Visual states

You can create interactivity in your Windows Phone application by defining a different visual appearance for each visual state that your UserControl control, Page control, or control template can be in, and then adding behaviors or code to switch between those states based on user interaction. You can modify the transition between two state combinations, even creating animations that will run when a state is first entered.

For more information about visual states, see Define different visual states for a control (Windows Phone).

Animation

You can use the keyframe animation tools in Blend to create animated sequences in your Windows Phone application. You can use keyframe animations in conjunction with visual states (for example, an animation that is triggered on reaching a specified state), or independently of them (for example, when an animation is triggered by an action).

For more information about creating animations in Blend, see Animating objects (Windows Phone).

Behaviors

You can use behaviors to add interactivity to your Windows Phone application without having to write any code. Behaviors are reusable pieces of packaged code that can be dragged onto any object, and then fine-tuned by changing their properties. You can design the way your application responds to users by using the built-in Windows Phone behaviors that come with Blend.

For more information, see Blend for Visual Studio SDK for Windows Phone 8.0.

Additional resources

Additional information about designing and developing applications for Windows Phone is available at Windows Phone Dev Center on MSDN.