Layout

All applications need to present information to users. For this information to be conveyed effectively, it should be arranged onscreen in a clear and logical way. WPF provides a powerful and flexible array of tools for controlling the layout of the user interface.

There is a fine line between giving the developer or designer enough control over the user interface's layout, and leaving them to do all the work. A good layout system should be able to automate common scenarios such as resizing, scaling, and adaptation to localization but should allow manual intervention where necessary.

WPF provides a set of panels : elements that handle layout. Each individual panel type offers a straightforward and easily understood layout mechanism. As with all WPF elements, layout objects can be composed in any number of different ways, so while each individual element type is fairly simple, the flexible way in which they can be combined makes for a very powerful layout system. And you can even create your own layout element types should the built-in ones not meet your needs.

In this chapter, we will look at where each of the basic layout panels fits into a typical UI design. We will also examine some of the text-layout features of WPF.