This version contains an enormous number of updates across the WPF control product line.

See the related announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

Download Buy Now

This version contains an enormous number of updates across the WPF control product line.

See the related announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

Download Buy Now

Here’s a look at some of the major new features.

Bar Code

QR Code ECI Support

The QR Code symbology has been updated to support Extended Channel Interpretation (ECI), which allows encoding of all UTF-8 characters.

Bars

Ribbon Group Labels

Ribbon group labels are always visible in Classic layout mode and in the past have always been hidden in Simplified layout mode.  A new option allows for keeping group labels visible in Simplified layout mode, which provides an interesting new appearance option.

Hiding Ribbon Tabs

For small ribbons with a single tab and no need of an application button, tabs and the app button can be hidden, saving a row of space.

ComboBox Inline Images

The combobox control can now optionally show inline images next to the text.

Many Other Enhancements

A massive number of updates have been made to various Bars controls and features.

Docking/MDI

Bars Integration Sample

A new Bars Integration sample shows how Ribbon and StandaloneToolBar can be used on a main Window without changing the active docking window when there are floating docking windows.

MDI Always On Top

A new option allows for any floating windows with MDI to always remain on top of the main window.

Open Documents Menu Path Tips

The tabbed MDI open documents menu now includes the document’s path as a tooltip on menu items.

SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on

Doc Comment Remarks

IntelliPrompt tips now include documentation comment remarks sections, if available.

Themes

WindowChrome Mouse Activation Over Toolbars

A new WindowChrome option can prevent the containing Window from being activated on click over any toolbar control.

This version adds a new Visual Studio Blue renderer, makes major improvements to SyntaxEditor’s ability to support light and dark themes, improves the SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on, and much more.

See the related announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

Download Buy Now

Here’s a look at some of the new features.

Renderer Updates

Some of the renderers for the various WinForms controls have been refactored with a more modern appearance, such as with glyphs for the status bar gripper and menu item checks.

A new Visual Studio Blue renderer has been added that mimics the look of the Visual Studio 2022 Blue theme.

SyntaxEditor Light and Dark Themes

It’s easier than ever to support switching between light and dark themes in SyntaxEditor.  A new class helps orchestrate updating SyntaxEditor UI elements, highlighting styles, and icon sets when toggling between light and dark themes.

All Actipro-provided syntax languages now include both light and dark highlighting styles, and we automatically convert many popular light-themed colors to appropriate dark-themed colors for custom languages that have yet to be updated with explicit dark styles.

SyntaxEditor Highlighting Style Updates

The current line number is now highlighted in a different style than other line numbers, so the default line number colors have been updated to better suit this feature.

When using multiple carets while editing, the primary caret now has a more distinctive appearance than secondary carets.

Several other highlighting styles have also had their default values tweaked.

SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on Updates

The C# parser grammar has been updated to support C# 9.0 syntax, including everything from top-level statements to records and improved pattern matching.

Resolver support has been improved for local functions.

Documentation comments display in IntelliPrompt now supports <para> and <br/> tags for paragraph and line breaks.

Sample Browser

The Sample Browser application has been updated to use an SDK-style project and target .NET 6.

We’ve been hard at work with several new features for v24.1 of our WPF and WinForms products and are asking for beta testers to work with preview builds of what is coming to help ensure a smooth transition.

Beta testers will get an early look at the new features and can give us valuable feedback to influence any necessary development and/or bug fixes prior to the final release.  See the notes at the end of this post for details on signing up as a beta tester.

SyntaxEditor Native Dark Theme

SyntaxEditor now has built-in support for switching between light and dark themes. Previously, only UI element brushes were updated for dark themes, but the highlighting styles and icon sets had to be manually transitioned.

Now, a new SyntaxEditorThemeManager class and individual light/dark color palettes for a highlighting style registry allow for any change in the global theme to be automatically reflected in SyntaxEditor.

All Actipro-provided languages have been updated, as appropriate, with both light and dark highlighting styles, and we automatically convert many popular light-themed colors to appropriate dark-themed colors for custom languages that have yet to be updated with explicit dark styles.

SyntaxEditor Highlighting Style Updates

A new feature enables the current line number to be highlighted in a different style than the other line numbers, so the default line number colors have been updated to coordinate with this new feature.

When editing with multiple carets, distinct colors can now be defined for the primary and secondary carets.

Several other highlighting styles have also had their default values tweaked.

Theme Updates (WinForms Only)

A new Visual Studio Blue theme is available that mimics the Visual Studio 2022 Blue theme.

The renderers for Metro Light and Dark have been updated with a more modern gripper for the status bar and more subtle checked icons for checkable menu items that do not provide their own icon. Several classic renderers have also been renamed for clarity.

Beta Testers

We are looking for beta testers who:

• Will actively use supplied preview builds to help ensure the beta is stable.
• Will report suggestions for improvement of new features.
• Will report confusion or missing information from conversion notes.
• Will report any bugs that are encountered.
• Ideally are signed up in our Slack workspace, as it’s easiest to communicate through that during testing phases.

Please contact our support team privately via a ticket to sign up for beta testing:

Contact Our Support Team to Sign Up

Please indicate the following in your message:

• Your name and e-mail address.
• If you are already an existing customer, and if so, your license key.
• The platform(s) you’d like to test.
• If you are already signed up in our Slack workspace.

Thanks for your help and we look forward to working with our testers.

This version makes a number of SyntaxEditor improvements including the abililty to select the next occurrence of selected text, much faster performance with complex IntelliPrompt completion lists, indented word-wrapped lines, and more.  Other updates have been made to Docking/MDI, Editors, Grids, Ribbon, Themes, and the Shared Library.

See the related announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

Download Buy Now

Here's a peek at a couple of the new features...

Docking/MDI

Tabbed MDI Float All

A new "Float All" menu item has been added to documents in tabbed MDI. 

When clicked the documents float together into a new MDI window that can be dragged as a group to another monitor.

SyntaxEditor

Select Next Occurrence

The select next occurrence feature provides a quick way to select additional instances of the selected text.  Say our caret is in the middle of the "using" keyword.  Pressing Ctrl+D (the hotkey for Select Next Occurrence) will select the current word since no selection was yet available.

After pressing Ctrl+D once a selection is made, it will add another selection of the next instance of the selected text.  In the bottom screenshot in the sequence above, I've pressed Ctrl+D several times so that all instances of "using" are selected.

SyntaxEditor supports multiple carets and selections, and at this point, any typing will update all the selected instances at the same time.

Indented Word-Wrapped Lines

Another great new feature is that word-wrapped lines will now be indented by a couple characters, as long as there is sufficient editor width to do so.

In the screenshot, you can see how the word-wrapped portion of line 11 is indented a couple characters beyond line 11's anchor indent level.  Indentation of wrapped lines makes it easier to read them.

The indent amount is fully configurable via a new SyntaxEditor.WrappedLineIndentAmount property, whose default is 2.  Set it to 0 to indent to the same amount as the anchor line with no additional indent.  Or set it to -1 to always left-align wrapped lines within the text area (no indent at all).

Themes

Theme Designer Base Color Finder

The Theme Designer has a handy Base Color Finder tool that can find a color family that will match your brand's primary color.  Previously this only worked well for light themes.  Updates have been made so that dark themes are also supported.