I am planning to create a Windows 8.1 store app.
In my app, I need to show a wizard control. Can anyone give me a good example of Wizard implementation in a store app?
I just need the UI design...
Back button, content, next button. Very easy and can be found in google images.
Related
Ocean2013.1 provides a sample(WheelerViewer) for using cameras(OpenInventor features) for 3D Windows, but is it possible to synchronize(equivalent of clicking the camera link toolbar option) multiple intersection windows in Ocean/Petrel programmatically?
Camera linking is available as a Petrel feature but not as a Ocean API for developer to access programmatically
You need to be mode specific on what you are trying to synchronize and why.
The Window3D exposes enough camera API that one can write his own camera view synchronization.
If all you want is to be able to click the "Synchronize camera" button via API, it's a different issue. Why do you need this? Often users ask to be able to link all windows with one mouse button click. This, I believe, might be coming in 2015 as a user feature.
I am trying to create wireframes for Win 8 and i am using Blend so as to make wireframes as close to actual app as possible.
IS there any short quickstart guide which i can read to start designing the UI in Blend?
I did google online but most of them very vague in description on how to design UI.
Normally you would use something as sketchflow to create your wireframes, but that's not available for Windows Store.
Only for WPF, Silverlight and Windows Phone (phone req. download from codeplex).
To create wireframes you would need to use something else like Microsoft Powerpoint. Please note though, to do this you one of the following versions of Visual Studio to create wireframes in Powerpoint:
Visual Studio Ultimate
Visual Studio Premium
Visual Studio Test Professional.
If you want to use PowerPoint for wireframing; check this Microsoft guide out
Hint: if using Powerpoint: If you search the Visual Studio Gallery for “storyboard”, you’ll find that the lots of shapes there. The link to the gallery and search is here.
You can still use Blend to create some mock ups. You just need to drag the controls onto the screen and start laying out your app. However this isn't wireframing, this is actually building a prototype of the app rather than doing your wireframes, which is a different thing.
You can still create your content in only using Blend and the Properties Panel on the right side of the screen.
There's a ton to material available here on the general design portal for Windows Store apps: http://design.windows.com
If you want wireframes looking as close as possible to the real deal, without actually building it, I recommend doing the wireframes in either Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop.
There a lot of assets available for designing screens here
With windows 8, is it possible to create an application that is always visible? For instance, in previous versions of windows, there is the task bar with quick launch icons. Can I create something similar to the quick launch icons that are always on the screen?
If you are referring to a Windows 8 Store app then the answer is no. You can have a live tile and toast notifications that provides updates to the user which may cause the user to launch your application.
A good article to read to understand how your Windows Store apps will run on Windows 8 go here to learn about Application lifecycle (Windows Store apps). This will explain the App execution state.
It is not possible in the RT version, but the same is possible in the desktop version. If you have a desktop app, you can pin it to the taskbar. But any Window store app cannot be pinned to the taskbar. What you can do instead is move the app to the beginning of your Home screen, so anytime you click the Windows button your app will be visible right in front.
Do you mean always visible in the Star Menu screen? If so, you can add tile updating functionality to your application. As long as the user has the application pinned to the Start Menu, he would see the updates. Check the link below for an introductory tutorial.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/04/16/creating-a-great-tile-experience-part-1.aspx
"Quick Launch" has a very specific meaning, which you may or may not have been referring to in your question.
Below is the Quick Launch bar in Windows 8 - essentially a toolbar pointing to a location in your %AppData% directory. Prior to Windows 7 it was available by default, but the ability to now pin items directly to the taskbar rather supersedes it. Here's how you can restore Quick Launch if you really want to :)
It's, of course, available only in the Desktop mode and not on the Modern UI, where pinning a tile is the best you can hope for, and it's all up to the user to pin it AND to determine where it shows up on their Start Screen.
Another option worth mentioning (although more like system tray than quick launch) is lock screen presence. If the user chooses so and your app supports that, he can add it to his lock screen:
either as a a badge (up to 7 apps)
or as a tile notification (single app only)
This is not a way for the user to quickly start your app (other answers have already covered these options) but a way to stay visible and keep your user informed.
Are About dialog boxes "dead" in Windows 8 Metro apps? I looked over quite a few apps and screenshots of apps in the Windows store, and did not find any "inspiration".
Is there any guidelines from Microsoft or any article that discusses this issue?
What do you think is the best way to show a dialog box/popup that shows the app name, version, author and a link to the app's home page?
I am thinking of a icon button in the bottom appbar, something like "About Appname", that opens a popup with this information. I am using C# and XAML.
You would place the About into the Settings pane via the Settings Charm using the Setting Contract. You can see the About in almost all of the apps in the Store today. Quick start on adding Settings can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/hh872190.aspx
Guidelines for app settings here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh770544.aspx
Take a look here.
It lets you create dialogs/flyouts very easily from a UserControl. A few lines of boiler plate and you are done. Takes care of animation, UI management etc.
I've spent a while searching around and I can't find a solution to this:
I have a transparent, borderless form that displays a clock. I can load this just fine, but I want the clock to be part of the desktop, so it cannot take focus, is behind other applications, and is not hidden with Win+D (similar to applications like RainMeter).
I need the solution to work with VB.Net (I'm using 2010)
Thanks in anticipation
Take a look at the following codeproject article:
Application Desktop Toolbars
It seems to do what you require.
This article is about Application Desktop Toolbars, which are
applications that can align to the screen much like the taskbar. The
article will develop a base class for developing such apps.