WinForms Controls v23.1 Released

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 10:01pm

This version contains updates across all our WinForms controls to support high DPI environments and add new dark color schemes.  .NET version compatibility was modernized to the latest supported .NET versions, and a large number of other various feature additions and bug fixes were made to all products.

SyntaxEditor with the Metro Dark color scheme

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.

DPI Awareness

Historically, high DPI support in WinForms has been a mixed bag. Newer Windows API’s and recent updates to .NET have greatly improved the scenario, but high DPI support is still not free and developers must put in the effort to ensure proper DPI awareness.

How numerous Actipro WinForms Controls render in 200% DPI with the v23.1 updates

With our WinForms Controls v23.1 updates, we’ve done our part to make sure our controls can render correctly in high DPI environments. Some of the changes include:

  • Scale font sizes.
  • Scale control dimensions.
  • Scale glyphs.
  • Scale raster images using optimal technique for the scale factor (e.g., pixel doubling at 200% dpi).
  • Scale built-in dialogs.
  • New vector-based common images for SyntaxEditor IntelliPrompt.
  • New DPI-friendly dock guides for Docking.
  • New DpiHelper class to simplify scaling based on DPI.
  • Updated Sample Browser to be DPI-aware.

NOTE:  Anyone with a DPI-aware application needs to read our v23.1 conversion topic and thoroughly test. It could be that you were already compensating for lack of DPI-awareness that we now handle, so you don't want to do something like scale our controls if we're already scaling them (causing double scaling).

Dark Color Scheme

We’ve also revamped how all renderers determine which colors are being used so we can better support a dark color scheme. New “Metro Dark” renderers are available for all our products and can be used to better integrate with dark-themed applications.

.NET Compatibility Updates

In regards to .NET version compatibility, we have:

  • Validated that v23.1 works great with .NET 7.
  • Updated our .NET 5 targets to .NET 6, since that is the lowest supported version of .NET per Microsoft.
  • Updated our .NET Framework 4.0 targets to .NET Framework 4.6.2, since that is the lowest supported version of .NET Framework per Microsoft.

WinForms Controls v23.1 Release Preview

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro) - 2 comments
Friday, January 6, 2023 at 12:47pm

The WinForms Controls v23.1 release is close to ready, and includes sweeping changes across all products to support high DPI environments and new dark color schemes. We have extensively tested this release internally and have already received positive feedback from beta testers, but we know every customer’s implementation of DPI support can vary greatly and would like to get more exposure before full release.

If you would like to assist with evaluating the release (especially DPI awareness) in your own application and provide feedback on changes before release, please email our support address for access to a release candidate.

How numerous Actipro WinForms Controls render in 200% DPI with the v23.1 updates

DPI Awareness

Historically, high DPI support in WinForms has been a mixed bag. Newer Windows API’s and recent updates to .NET have greatly improved the scenario, but high DPI support is still not free and developers must put in the effort to ensure proper DPI awareness.

With our WinForms Controls v23.1 updates, we’ve done our part to make sure our controls can render correctly in high DPI environments. Some of the changes coming in the next release include:

  • Scale font sizes.
  • Scale control dimensions.
  • Scale glyphs.
  • Scale raster images using optimal technique for the scale factor (e.g., pixel doubling at 200% dpi).
  • Scale built-in dialogs.
  • New vector-based common images for SyntaxEditor IntelliPrompt.
  • New DPI-friendly dock guides for Docking.
  • New DpiHelper class to simplify scaling based on DPI.
  • Updated Sample Browser to be DPI-aware.

Dark Color Scheme

We’ve also revamped how all renderers determine which colors are being used so we can better support a dark color scheme. New “Metro Dark” renderers are available for all our products and can be used to better integrate with dark-themed applications.

WPF Controls v22.1.4 Maintenance Release

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 6:37pm

This version makes a number of minor 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 v22.1.3 Maintenance Release

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 9:04pm

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. 

The new menu item (left) and the result of clicking it (right)

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.

A sequence of screenshots showing the Select Next Occurrence feature

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.

The wrapped portion of line 11 is indented

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.

The Base Color Finder working on a dark theme

WinForms Controls v22.1.3 Maintenance Release

by Avatar Bill Henning (Actipro)
Wednesday, August 17, 2022 at 8:53pm

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.

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...

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.

A sequence of screenshots showing the Select Next Occurrence feature

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.

The wrapped portion of line 11 is indented

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.