FontFamilyComboBox
The FontFamilyComboBox class provides an implementation of a ComboBox that allows for selection of a font family. The font family list is automatically populated.
Note
See the Control Basics topic for many implementation details that are common to the built-in controls such as this one.
Variants
This control supports numerous UI styles (called variants) based on its Context and VariantSize property settings.
| Context | Variant Size | Sample UI |
|---|---|---|
| MenuItem | (all) |  |
| (any other) | Medium (when in StackPanel) |  |
| (any other) | (any other) |  |
Capabilities
The following table gives an overview of the capabilities of the control.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Supports tall size (fills height of Group) | No. When in the ribbon, it should be placed in a StackPanel that is in a Medium variant or smaller. |
| Supports normal size | Yes. |
| Supports use in a Menu | Yes. |
| Base class | ComboBox. |
| Child items | Yes. The items collection inherits from the native WPF ComboBox class and data binding to ItemsSource is fully supported. |
| Has popup | Yes. The items are displayed in the popup. |
| Key tip access | Yes. Set via the KeyTipAccessText property. |
| Is key tip scope | No. |
| Click event trigger | When the Enter key is pressed while in the control, when a new ComboBox selection is made, or when the control loses focus and the value is changed. |
| Supports use outside of Ribbon | Yes. |
| Supports commands | Yes. |
| Supports ICheckableCommandParameter | No. |
| Supports IValueCommandParameter | Yes. Controls the selected value of the ComboBox and supports live preview. |
| Default CommandParameter | FontFamilyValueCommandParameter. |
Managing the Selected Value
This control is designed to use the WPF command model to maintain the selected value of the control. By default, an FontFamilyValueCommandParameter is assigned as the CommandParameter of the control.
See the Interaction with Value Controls topic for detailed information on using this command parameter to manage the control's value and support live preview.
Layout on the Ribbon and in Menus
It is recommended that when a ComboBox is used in the ribbon that a specific Width be set. When used within a StackPanel, controls such as ComboBox (that don't draw labels inside their bounds like Button controls do) will be lined up and stacked vertically and their optional labels and images will be drawn to the left of them.
When used in a Menu, a MinWidth should be set on the ComboBox. Since the left edge of controls like ComboBox will vary based on the width of its Label, setting a MinWidth ensures that the ComboBox itself will be at least a certain appropriate width and can grow as needed to fill the width of the menu.
Working with the FontFamilyComboBox
The ribbon FontFamilyComboBox indirectly inherits the native WPF ComboBox control, so anything you can do in the native WPF ComboBox you can do in the ribbon FontFamilyComboBox.
Please see the MSDN documentation on the native WPF ComboBox for more details on its capabilities.
You can also use the SelectedValue property to get/set the actual selected FontFamily value. The static FontFamilyComboBox.GetFontFamily method can be used to retrieve a FontFamily from a font family name, allowing you to set the control's value manually like this:
myFontFamilyComboBox.SelectedValue = FontFamilyComboBox.GetFontFamily("Courier New");
Setting Whether Items Display Text Using the Font Family
By default, each item in the drop-down will draw its font family name in the actual FontFamily that it represents. This behavior can be disabled by setting the FontFamilyComboBox.UsePreviewInItemRendering property to false.
When this feature is disabled, each item will draw the font family name in the standard UI font.
Validating Typefaces
The control has a IsTypefaceValidationEnabled property that defaults to false. When set to true, it will examine each font family's typefaces as the font family is being added to the combobox. If the font family's typefaces cannot be loaded for some reason (which can occur with some Adobe fonts), it will not be added to the control. The downside of this feature is that it can potentially cause a couple second delay during window load time, thus it is disabled by default.
Sample XAML
This code shows how to prototype this control in XAML-only:
<ribbon:FontFamilyComboBox Width="135" Label="Font Family" KeyTipAccessText="FF" />
This code shows how to prototype this control in XAML but by also using a ribbon command to set up its user interface:
<ribbon:FontFamilyComboBox Width="135"
Command="sample:ApplicationCommands.FontFamily" KeyTipAccessText="FF" />