WPF Controls v25.1 Released

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 2:17pm

This version adds major new dockable/floating toolbar and advanced main menu functionality to Bars, adds new SyntaxEditor features, implements a huge update in the .NET Languages Add-on to support the latest C# 13 syntax, makes large improvements in C# interpolated string editing, and much more.

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

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

Bars

Dockable Toolbars

Toolbars docked on the top and side of an app, and a floating toolbar

Visual Studio-like toolbars are now available that can be dragged to and docked within any side of a host control. Multiple lines of toolbars are supported in each host side, and multiple toolbars can appear in each line. Toolbars can optionally be floated and moved to other screens as well.

Toolbar visibility options

End users can toggle which toolbars are visible.

Main Menu

An Edit menu showing how screen tips can display even for menu items

An advanced main menu control supports easy MVVM creation, key tips, and screen tips, similar to other Bars controls.  The main menu control pairs well with the new dockable toolbars.

SyntaxEditor

Intra-Text Adornment Location

Elapsed time adornment shown at the end of a line

Intra-text adornments can now optionally appear after the tagged text range instead of before. This allows for features such as AI suggestions or contextual information to appear past the last character in a line.

Outlining Margin Modernization

Outlining margin glyph updates

The rendering of the outlining margin has been modernized and now matches the latest Visual Studio code editor appearance.

SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on

C# 13 Syntax Support

Parameters showing in IntelliPrompt from C# primary constructors

The .NET Languages Add-on’s C# parser previously only supported C# 9 syntax. The updates in this version now support all C# features up to and including C# 13.

C# Interpolated String Expressions

IntelliPrompt working in interpolated string expressions

The .NET Languages Add-on’s C# syntax language now syntax highlights interpolated string expressions. It also fully supports IntelliPrompt features within the expressions, making interpolated string editing much better.

Docking/MDI

Tabbed MDI Single Tab Layout Behavior

A new option allows for tabbed MDI tabs to be hidden when there is a single document in a container.

Tab Key Access

Updated access keys to jump directly to tabs based on their index number. The Ctrl+9 key will now jump to the last document in the tabbed MDI container, regardless of its index.

Shared Library

User Prompt Resizing

A resizable user prompt

The UserPromptBuilder now has an easy way to configure a user prompt to be resizable.

Miscellaneous

.NET Requirements

All assemblies now have a target for .NET 8. Prior .NET Core 3.1 targets were updated to .NET 6 instead, which can be used by those not yet moving to .NET 8.

WPF Controls v24.1.4 Maintenance Release

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at 9:28pm

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

WPF Controls v24.1.3 Maintenance Release

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 at 3:27pm

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.

A ribbon in Simplified layout mode, but still displaying group labels

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.

Single tab ribbons can hide the tab header row

ComboBox Inline Images

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

Several combobox examples, with the last showing an inline color swatch image

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.

The new Bars Integration sample

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.

A tooltip for the highlighted open document menu item

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.

WinForms Controls v24.1.1 Maintenance Release

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 at 1:58pm

This version makes numerous minor updates across the WinForms control product line, including the ability for holding Ctrl key to make SyntaxEditor IntelliPrompt popups semi-transparent.

The Ctrl key is held down, making the SyntaxEditor completion list semi-transparent

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

Download Buy Now

WinForms Controls v24.1 Released

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 at 3:40pm

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.

The new Visual Studio Blue theme

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.

A SyntaxEditor light theme (above) and dark theme (below)

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.

Multiple carets and current line highlighting

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.

A C# document with top-level statements

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.