Menus, Toolbars, and Ribbons

Abstract

A few rich controls can appear in virtually any type of application, from document editors to system utilities. Those are the controls that you’ll meet in this chapter. They include the following:

• Menus. They’re one of the oldest user interface controls, and they’ve changed surprisingly little in the past two decades. WPF includes solid, straightforward support for main menus and pop-up context menus.

• Toolbars and status bars. They decorate the top and bottom of countless applications—sometimes when they aren’t even needed. WPF supports both controls with its customary flexibility, allowing you to insert virtually any control inside. However, the WPF toolbars and status bars don’t have many frills. They support overflow menus, but they don’t provide floating and docking capability.

• Ribbons. With only a little more effort, you can add an Office-style ribbon to the top of your application window. It requires a separate (free) download, but you’ll get some valuable built-in features, such as configurable resizing. You’ll also get an Office-style menu feature to match.