Custom buttons in silverlight

Question

How can I create buttons like this in silverlight. Do I need expression blend for this.

Since I need to use the modified buttons at many places in my application, should I do it as a user control?

Answer 1

You don't need a UserControl for this, just a custom Button template as a style resource, which then you can reuse by setting the style on any Button instance.

While it's doable without Blend, I highly recommend you at least get the trial, it's a really really nice IDE for design / visual development!

Edit: As a little present here's a starting point :)

<Style x:Key="ButtonStyle1" TargetType="Button">
    <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="#FFFFFFFF"/>
    <Setter Property="Padding" Value="3"/>
    <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="1"/>
    <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="#FF000000"/>
    <Setter Property="Template">
         <Setter.Value>
              <ControlTemplate TargetType="Button">
                    <Grid>
                          <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                                <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                                      <VisualState x:Name="Normal"/>
                                      <VisualState x:Name="MouseOver"/>
                                      <VisualState x:Name="Pressed"/>
                                      <VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                           <Storyboard>
                                                <DoubleAnimation Duration="0" To="0.4" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledVisualElement"/>
                                           </Storyboard>
                                      </VisualState>
                                </VisualStateGroup>
                                <VisualStateGroup x:Name="FocusStates">
                                        <VisualState x:Name="Focused">
                                                <Storyboard>
                                                    <DoubleAnimation Duration="0" To="1" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" Storyboard.TargetName="FocusVisualElement"/>
                                                </Storyboard>
                                        </VisualState>
                                        <VisualState x:Name="Unfocused"/>
                                </VisualStateGroup>
                          </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                          <Border x:Name="Background" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}">
                                  <Border.Background>
                                      <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0">
                                          <GradientStop Color="#FF707070" Offset="0"/>
                                          <GradientStop Color="#FF666666" Offset="0.49"/>
                                          <GradientStop Color="#FF5e5e5e" Offset="0.51"/>
                                          <GradientStop Color="#FF535353" Offset="1"/>
                                      </LinearGradientBrush>
                                  </Border.Background>
                          </Border>
                          <ContentPresenter x:Name="contentPresenter" ContentTemplate="{TemplateBinding ContentTemplate}" Content="{TemplateBinding Content}" HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}">
                                <ContentPresenter.Effect>
                                      <DropShadowEffect BlurRadius="3" ShadowDepth="2" Opacity="0.5"/>
                                </ContentPresenter.Effect>
                          </ContentPresenter>
                          <Rectangle x:Name="DisabledVisualElement" Fill="#FFFFFFFF" IsHitTestVisible="false" Opacity="0"/>
                          <Rectangle x:Name="FocusVisualElement" IsHitTestVisible="false" Margin="1" Opacity="0" Stroke="#FF6DBDD1" StrokeThickness="1"/>
                    </Grid>
              </ControlTemplate>
         </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>