WinForms Controls 2013.1 build 310 has been released and is now available for download.
This version features the updates we did to bring Metro Light themes to the controls as described in this post and this post. The new themes can make your app's Actipro controls render similar to the visual style found in Visual Studio 2013.
See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.
Bill Henning (Actipro)
Yesterday we announced that a new Metro Light theme is coming to our WinForms Controls in the 2014.1 version. This new theme was modeled after Visual Studio 2013's appearance and helps give your app a sleeker look.
In the newer Visual Studio versions, auto-hidden tool windows are represented by a UI element that no longer looks like a tab. Instead, the "tab" contains the tool window's name with a thick line underneath.
In this screenshot, you can see the mouse hovering over the Events auto-hide tab:
Another change in Visual Studio is that hovering over the tab no longer automatically shows the tool window in a flyout. Users must now click to display the flyout.
Our DockManager already has a AutoHideShowOnMouseHover property that can be set to false to achieve that sort of behavior. For the 2014.1 version, we have enhanced it further. If the property is false, and a tool window's auto-hide tab is clicked while the related tool window flyout is displayed, the flyout will now toggle closed. This achieves similar functionality to how Visual Studio 2013 works.
These additions to give your WinForms app a fresh new Metro look will be available in the 2014.1 version of our WinForms Controls.
Bill Henning (Actipro)
We've had metro themes in our WPF control products for over a year now and recently announced that they are getting some very nice updates for their 2014.1, with a number of refinements and enhancements.
Today I'd like to announce that a Metro Light theme is coming to our WinForms Controls as well! This new theme gives your WinForms apps a Visual Studio 2013-like appearance.
First, we've added an additional option to the WindowsColorSchemeType that is called MetroLight and uses a flat color scheme similar to Visual Studio 2013's look.
Next, we created brand new renderers for our Bars, Docking/MDI, and Navigation products that draw the controls using the Metro appearance. SyntaxEditor and Wizard already look good in Metro Light with their existing renderers.
Here's the Bar Controls demo, showing off the new theme:
Notice how the entire window has a nice flat appearance and subtle touches like the dotted gripper title bars are included.
This great theme addition to give your WinForms app a fresh new Metro look will be available in the 2014.1 version of our WinForms Controls.
Bill Henning (Actipro)
WinForms Controls 2013.1 build 312 has been released and is now available for download. Several enhancements and bug fixes are part of this build.
The most notable improvement is the SyntaxEditor ability to edit multiple lines of text at the same time via block selection, as described in this previous blog post.
See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.
We just wanted to post a quick reminder that all of our latest versions of WPF, WinRT/XAML, Silverlight, and WinForms controls support the new Visual Studio 2013 version.
If you haven't tried VS 2013 yet, we urge you to download it from Microsoft's site. It features a more refined design than VS 2012, and is a pleasure to use. In particular, we love using the new Team Explorer tool window and peek definition editor feature.
Also, in case you haven't heard, Microsoft is hosting a Visual Studio 2013 Virtual Launch event on November 13. The event will consist of a keynote speech and they will be going over the new features in subsequent technical sessions. Be sure to check it out.