Properties panel

The Properties panel in Microsoft Expression Blend is where you can view and modify the properties of an object that is selected on the artboard or under Objects and Timeline. If you modify an object directly on the artboard with your mouse using the object handles, the property changes will be reflected in the Properties panel. The reverse is also true: if you scale an object by using the value editor under Transform in the Properties panel, the object will scale on the artboard.

The Properties panel undocked

Expandable and collapsible categories of properties.

	The name and type of the selected object.		The RGB (red, green, blue) color space. You can change to one of the other three supported color spaces by clicking one of the underlined letters (for example, R in the RGB color space) to see a pop-up menu with the alternative color spaces listed.
	Toggle buttons for displaying either the Properties or Events view.		The Alpha channel slider, to change the transparency of this particular brush property (not the whole object).
	The search box for filtering the properties that are displayed by the text that is entered.		The color chips, which show the initial color, current color, and last color.
	Various visual properties (brushes) such as Fill brush, Stroke brush, Foreground brush.		The Gradient eyedropper (when the Gradient Brush is selected) or Color eyedropper (when the Solid Color Brush is selected).
	The button for opening the Advanced property options  pop-up menu, to reset the property to a default value, to convert the property value to a resource, to apply a resource, or to bind the property to data.		The button to convert this color to a color resource, which will make it selectable from the Color resources tab.
	Tabs to select a brush editor. The selected property under Brushes can be set to No brush, Solid Color Brush, Gradient Brush, or Tile Brush, or to a Brush resource.		The hexadecimal value of the color.
	The Editor, which is available for solid color and gradient brushes.		The gradient slider with gradient stops, which appears only if a gradient brush is selected.
	The Color resources tab, which includes Local Resources and System Resources, and which allows you to apply the exact same color to different properties.		The gradient type buttons: Linear Gradient and Radial Gradient.
	The color picker with color slider.

Value editors

The Properties panel presents a number editor for entering values such as degrees, pixels, percentages, and so on. For example, the RGB color space text boxes in the preceding image are number editors. You can click an existing numerical value and type the exact value you want, or you can use the unique slider to change values by moving your pointer over the text box of the property, and then dragging when the numerical adjust pointer  appears. You can also click in the text box of the property and use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to adjust the value.

Advanced properties

Most categories of properties in the Properties panel have an expandable advanced section, which you can open by clicking Show advanced properties  at the bottom of the category. The advanced properties are less commonly used. Some involve subproperty and collection editors.

Subproperty and collection editors

In the Properties panel, some properties are more complex than a single value. Some properties represent a collection of values, or represent an object with properties of its own. For example, if you add rows or columns to a Grid layout panel by clicking Edit items in this collection next to the ColumnDefinitions or RowDefinitions property, a collection editor appears in which you can add rows and columns. If you add a document to a FlowDocumentScrollViewer object by clicking New next to the Document property, a subproperty editor expands below the Document property. In the subproperty editor, you can view and modify the properties for the new document.

Setting special values

Another way that you can set a property is by using the advanced property options pop-up menu (shown in the following image). You can set a property to a custom expression, a resource, or a data binding, or you can reset the property to a default value by clicking Advanced property options , and then selecting from the items in the pop-up menu. After you set a property by using the advanced property options pop-up menu, the name of the property is given a colored border so that you know what type of value it is set to. For example, if you set the value of a property to a System Resource, the property name will be given a green border.

Advanced property options pop-up menu