RadCarousel for WinForms - Even More Bang for your Buck

Introducing the RadCarousel component into our suite can be compared to what the Big Bang was to the Universe in the early days. We’ve seen it all - from feature requests straight after its initial release, to statements it is worth as much as the entire suite. A few words of introduction - the RadCarousel animates a number of alternatives to choose from in a visually appealing way. RadCarousel animates the location, opacity and scale of its items. Items can be moved along any path described by a Bezier curve or an ellipse. These basic capabilities allow the control to be used to display items, in a way that is highly customizable and attractive.

I’d like to share with you a few ways to improve the component’s performance to enable you to take maximum advantage of its capabilities. You can get a smoother animated motion using the tips below:

• Removing the carousel background
• Decreasing the number of the visible items
• Decreasing the size of the carousel items

But again, as nice as this may sound, you’re interested in how we’ll be making it better. So, what’s coming up in RadCarousel in Q2 2008?

1. We’ll expose properties controlling the animation of items, such as the number of frames, and animation delay. This will allow you to fine-tune the operation of the control to even better adapt to your specific needs.
2. You’ll be able to edit the path of items at design-time, using the mouse. You’ll see changes in the path as you make them. This will save you time in picking the required path for the items to follow.

Please share with us any feedback you have on the RadCarousel. What features would you like to see in the future, how do you think we can change the current functionality to suit your needs better? Your feedback plays an important role in our decision-making progress, as we would like to enable you to deliver more than you or your customers expect.