Properties panel

The Properties panel in Microsoft Expression Blend is where you can view and modify the properties of an object that is selected on the artboard or under Objects and Timeline. If you modify an object directly on the artboard with your mouse using the object handles, the property changes will be reflected in the Properties panel. The reverse is also true: if you scale an object by using the value editor under Transform in the Properties panel, the object will scale on the artboard.

The Properties panel undocked

Categories   An expandable and collapsible categories of properties. Click Expand  and Collapse  to toggle between views.

	Name and Type   Displays the name and type of the selected object.		RGB   Displays the RGB (red, green, blue) color space. You can change to one of the other three supported color spaces by clicking one of the underlined letters (for example, R in the RGB color space) to see a pop-up menu with the alternative color spaces listed.
	Properties and Events   Displays either the Properties or Events view.		Alpha channel   Use the Alpha channel slider, to change the transparency of this particular brush property (not the whole object).
	Search box   Type text in the search box to filter the properties that are displayed.		Color chips   Displays the initial color, current color, and last color.
	Brush properties   Displays visual properties for brushes such as Fill brush, Stroke brush, Foreground brush.		Gradient and Color eyedroppers   Displays the Gradient eyedropper (when Gradient Brush is selected) or Color eyedropper (when Solid Color Brush is selected).
	Advanced options   Displays a pop-up menu that allows you to reset the property to a default value, to convert the property value to a resource, to apply a resource, or to bind the property to data.		Convert to color resource   Converts this color to a color resource, which will make it selectable from the Color resources tab.
	Brush editor   Use to select a brush editor. The selected property under Brushes can be set to No brush, Solid Color Brush, Gradient Brush, or Tile Brush, or to a Brush resource.		Hex value   Displays the hexadecimal value of the color.
	Editor   Use for solid color and gradient brushes.		Gradient slider   Appears only if a gradient brush is selected.
	Color resources   Allows you to apply the exact same color to different properties. The Color Resources tab includes Local Resources and System Resources		Gradient type   Click either Linear Gradient or Radial Gradient.
	Color Picker   Use to select a color by using the color picker and color slider.

Value editors

The Properties panel presents a number editor for entering values such as degrees, pixels, percentages, and so on. For example, the RGB color space text boxes in the preceding image are number editors. You can click an existing numerical value and type the exact value you want, or you can use the unique slider to change values by moving your pointer over the text box of the property, and then dragging when the numerical adjust pointer  appears. You can also click in the text box of the property and use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to adjust the value.

Advanced properties

Most categories of properties in the Properties panel have an expandable advanced section, which you can open by clicking Show advanced properties  at the bottom of the category. The advanced properties are less commonly used. Some involve subproperty and collection editors.

Subproperty and collection editors

In the Properties panel, some properties are more complex than a single value. Some properties represent a collection of values, or represent an object with properties of its own. For example, if you add rows or columns to a Grid layout panel by clicking Edit items in this collection next to the ColumnDefinitions or RowDefinitions property, a collection editor appears in which you can add rows and columns. If you add a document to a FlowDocumentScrollViewer object by clicking New next to the Document property, a subproperty editor expands below the Document property. In the subproperty editor, you can view and modify the properties for the new document.

Setting special values

Another way that you can set a property is by using the advanced options pop-up menu (shown in the following image). You can set a property to a custom expression, a resource, or a data binding, or you can reset the property to a default value by clicking Advanced options , and then selecting from the items in the pop-up menu. After you set a property by using the advanced options pop-up menu, the name of the property is given a colored border so that you know what type of value it is set to. For example, if you set the value of a property to a System Resource, the property name will be given a green border.

Advanced options pop-up menu

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