Explorer bar is an implementation of the task bar that was introduced in Windows XP's explorer. It hosts a vertical stack of expandable panes that generally provide task-based information to the end user.
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The ExplorerBar control in its Luna normal-color theme
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Any content can be placed within each expander pane and the alternate style of pane headers is supported via a simple style setting.
Animated Expander Panes
Each expander pane uses smooth animation to fade in and slide down its contents when expanded. Likewise, when an expander pane is collapsed, its contents fade out and slide back up.
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The ExplorerBar control with its second pane being expanded with animated fade in and slide down
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Themes
This product includes 4 distinct built-in themes and is fully extensible so that other product themes can be custom developed. Themes can be tinted towards any color or set of colors, and brush resources from them may be reused.
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The ExplorerBar control in its Windows Classic theme
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Single Expansion Option
An option is available to only permit a single expander pane to be expanded at any time. By default, any number of expander panes may be expanded.
Globalization
This control fully supports left-to-right layouts and user interface resource string customization.
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ExplorerBar using a right-to-left flow direction
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Designer Support
ExplorerBar has designer support similar to our other controls. For instance when working in Visual Studio 2008, you have access to task panes for the controls:
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An ExplorerBar selected in the Visual Studio 2008 designer
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ExplorerBar installs toolbox items for VS 2008. It even includes an item template that is available from the New Item pane in VS 2008 that when selected, creates a new Window with a simple ExplorerBar on it.
Getting ExplorerBar Free
Any Actipro WPF Studio customer with an active subscription is eligible to get ExplorerBar for free!