Visual Studio 2008 - Where is the Xaml Designer?

By Doug Holland (Intel) (249 posts) on September 2, 2009 at 12:37 am

Within Visual Studio 2008 developers may have noticed that the Xaml designer has disappeared although it is actually merely hidden from view and so I thought it might be useful to write a blog post describing how to get the designer back.

In the .NET Framework version 3.0, the Xaml language made its debut with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and is used also within Silverlight projects. In the next release of Visual Studio the Xaml language will also be used for the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) although that is a topic for another blog post.

So, where exactly did the Xaml designer go within Visual Studio 2008 SP1?

If you open Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and then select a Xaml file within either a WPF or Silverlight project and the designer isn't shown you'll only need to open the designer as it is completely minimized just below the Visual Studio text editor. You'll notice within the next screen shot that the cursor is just along the lower border of the text editor and that the cursor has changed to a solid horizontal bar with vertical arrows in both directions. Clicking the thin bar where the cursor is shown will allow you to expand the designer surface into view again.  

With the designer surface within view once again you'll need to resume loading of the designer component because there was no need to load the designer components when it was not shown.

If you then click on the link button to load the designer you'll once again have a fully functional Xaml designer within Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

So, finally you can continue editing the Xaml markup within Visual Studio 2008 SP1 using the Xaml designer.

While this is very useful to know, many developers are now using the Expression Blend 3.0 tool for editing much of the Xaml that they would have otherwise used Visual Studio for.

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Comments (13)

September 2, 2009 5:06 AM PDT


Tom Quinn		 Hey Dude,
trying to get back in touch with you..... your PrecisionObjects email gone dead????
September 2, 2009 12:44 PM PDT

Doug Holland (Intel)
Doug Holland (Intel)Total Points:
14,135
Black Belt
 Hey Tom,

Good to hear from you although I don't really use that e-mail address anymore, send me an e-mail to doug dot holland at intel dot com.

Thanks,

Doug
September 2, 2009 1:11 PM PDT

Gastón C. Hillar
Gastón C. HillarTotal Points:
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Black Belt
 Hey Doug,

Could you activate it again for Silverlight 3 RTW projects?
After I installed Silverlight 3 RTW, I couldn't preview XAML anymore. I had to move to Expression Blend 3.0. BTW, Expression Blend 3.0 is really cool. However, I miss XAML preview for Silverlight 3 in VS 2008. I had some projects I cannot move to VS 2010 Beta yet.

Thanks,

Gaston
September 4, 2009 11:08 AM PDT

Doug Holland (Intel)
Doug Holland (Intel)Total Points:
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Black Belt
 Hey Gastón,

I believe it is now activated for all Silverlight projects, did it not work for you?

Regards,

Doug
September 4, 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Gastón C. Hillar
Gastón C. HillarTotal Points:
4,424
Black Belt
 Awesome! It works with Silverlight 3!
Believe me, I had spent 20 hours trying to preview contents again.

Thanks for your post. I've been looking for a solution for this and it didn't work. However, I've read your post carefully again and it does work as you explain it.

Cheers,

Gaston
September 4, 2009 12:11 PM PDT

Doug Holland (Intel)
Doug Holland (Intel)Total Points:
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Black Belt
 Hey Gastón,

Great to hear that Gastón!!!

If you're also using the Expression tools then you might want to also check out the blog post about enabling TFS source control within Expression Blend 3.0. It's really cool that the two tools share the same solution file and you can work really effectively back and forth between Visual Studio and Expression Blend 3.0.

Regards,

Doug
September 15, 2009 6:51 AM PDT


Bamiela		 Hi Doug,

Very good and useful article. Works with Silverlight 3.0. Was looking for this desperately. Thank you so much.
September 15, 2009 5:04 PM PDT

Doug Holland (Intel)
Doug Holland (Intel)Total Points:
14,135
Black Belt
 Hey Bamiela,

Glad I was able to help...

- Doug
October 7, 2009 1:24 AM PDT


Karthik		 Hi,

Thanks for sharing the excellent information. It saved my day.

Thanks.
February 3, 2010 2:16 PM PST


cslacika		 Thanks a lot!!
May 7, 2010 11:01 AM PDT


Rourke		 Thanks a lot man!... I was looking for this for whole day yesterday...
July 23, 2010 2:13 AM PDT


Mesut AYDIN		 Thanks (Teşekkürler)
October 30, 2010 8:28 PM PDT


sandy		 Versy nice

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