Appendix A. Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone
Throughout this book you’ve used Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone to build sample applications. Visual Studio is a great tool for writing and debugging C# and Visual Basic code, but is only moderately useful for working with XAML documents. The Visual Studio XAML designer allows you to drag and drop controls onto a page and provides property editors to allow you to manipulate the appearance of the user interface. The Visual Studio designer is built for software developers.
Visual Studio isn’t so friendly for the members of your team who focus on visual design instead of code. Microsoft Expression Blend allows visual designers to create user interfaces without writing a single line of C# or Visual Basic code. Designers can work on user interfaces using the same project files that the developer uses in Visual Studio. Expression Blend was installed as part of the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.
In this appendix you’ll learn how to create a new project in Microsoft Expression Blend. You’ll use the tools and designers provided by Expression Blend to add an ellipse to the application and change the ellipse’s look and feel. Finally you’ll use Silverlight Animation and make the ellipse act like a bouncing ball using animation and behaviors when the user touches the screen. Before you create the sample application, you need to know a bit more about Expression Blend’s tools and designers.