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
Related
In multiple Windows Store App tutorials i have come across, where Visual Studio 2012 is used, the user is told to delete MainPage.xaml and replace it with a new item called Basic Page.
Since Windows Store Apps is not available in the version I'm using (Visual Studio 2015 Ultimate), when creating a new project, I went with Windows Universal Blank App. The problem is I can't find the Basic Page item in the version I'm using.
Is there an equivalent item I can use instead?
Edit: YouTube tutorial link
I know absolutely nothing about Windows Store Apps and Universal Apps, but was told by my CS teacher that I should use Windows Universal App, when creating the project. The tutorial was his recommendation, and he expects that I finish it during the weekend, so I can't ask him about it. I'm guessing there must be some difference between WSA and WUA. I can't see any item that looks like Basic Page, and I don't really know why the guy is replacing the MainPage.xaml with a Basic Page, so i'm clueless about what to do now.
You should use Blank Page option instead.
Difference between Basic Page and Blank Page
Basic Page- This on addition also adds some boilerplate code related to navigation inside your app along with back button and Appname header in XAML code.
Blank Page- Only adds a default page with basic navigation.
Make sure you have installed app development SDK's, since under C# you are supposed to get Universal option which I am not seeing in your current screenshot.
If you install Windows 8.1 SDK then you might get Basic Page template option. But for windows 10 SDK you can use Template10 add it as nuget package which already contains these navigation related boilerplate codes.
I am developing an app in which I want to add semantic zoom for languages. I used blank app...
I used simple mode not used grid or split template. In blank template, how may I use semantic zoom. Don't give me MSDN link.??
Language VB.net & C#
using Visual Studio 2012
Here's a sample by MS.
Hope it will help.
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/GroupedGridView-77c59e8e
We'd like to create many MonoGames inside one Visual Studio 2012 Solution. The main screen has to be a Windows Store Application. From the main menu, we'd be able to navigate to specified minigame and when it finishes, navigate back to main menu. Is it possible to create that? Is this project correct in Microsoft Windows Store?
You can create multiple Windows Store apps (or projects) from one Visual Studio solution. Each project will have its own package file. However, they are separate apps and not related to each other. One alternative is to create one solution (or one Windows Store app) with multiple games. For example, you create one or a set of xaml pages for each game, and then navigate between these xaml pages. I know this approach works but just haven't tested it with MonoGame. For more info on packaging, check out Packaging your Windows Store app using Visual Studio 2012.
I have an application (chat) that I am developing for our company (special requirements). We are mostly using WinXP computers. I want it to be topmost and docked to the right, the problem is, I don't want it to overlap other windows that people are working on.
Is there a way to change the default area that other programs can maximize to? Basically, I want it to look something like this:
Is something like this possible? I'm using VB.net so all .net answers are accepted.
Thanks!
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.
How do you create custom chrome for a windows form in vb.net using Visual Basic 2008 express? I want to basically scrap what they give and start fresh, is there any way to do so easily?
I figured it out eventually. In the properties window with the form itself chosen, FormBorderStyle from "Sizable" to "None" will remove all built in chrome, therefore leaving me to go make my own. Resizability and moving may be a bit tough as I will have to code that myself, but this is an easy way to strip the chrome.