With the Q1 2011 BETA release of RadControls for Silverlight and WPF we are announcing new ribbon control – the RadRibbonBackstage. The new RadRibbonBar Backstage functionality comes to replace the old Office 2007 Application menu with the new Office 2010 style. It is actually a collection of controls and most common actions that can be taken on the working area.
The new Backstage view might be used in cases where you want to achieve more native Office 2010 look and feel for your application.
The Backstage derives from RadTabControl, because it is actually a kind of a tab control, which has ordinary tab items as well as non-selectable (button) items. Most of the regular TabControl properties will be hidden, because won’t be relevant to the Backstage.
The BackstageItem will derive from RadTabItem and will add some additional functionality like:
The user can set the Backstage using the Backstage property of the RadRibbonBar:
<
telerik:RadRibbonBar
>
<
telerik:RadRibbonBar.Backstage
>
<
telerik:RadRibbonBackstage
/>
</
telerik:RadRibbonBar.Backstage
>
</
telerik:RadRibbonBar
>
You can manage the opened-closed states of the Backstage using the IsBackstageOpen property of the RadRibbonBar. If you need to organize the layout of your application, so the ribbon bar with its corresponding elements (for example RadRichTextBox) are not occupying the whole application area, you can place them in a grid (or some other container) and bind it to the BackstageClippingElement property of the RadRibbonBar, so the Backstage will place itself exactly over this part of the UI:
<
Grid
>
<
Grid.RowDefinitions
>
<
RowDefinition
Height
=
"30"
/>
<
RowDefinition
Height
=
"*"
/>
<
RowDefinition
Height
=
"30"
/>
</
Grid.RowDefinitions
>
<
Grid.ColumnDefinitions
>
<
ColumnDefinition
Width
=
"40"
/>
<
ColumnDefinition
Width
=
"*"
/>
<
ColumnDefinition
Width
=
"40"
/>
</
Grid.ColumnDefinitions
>
<
Grid
x:Name
=
"RibbonGrid"
Grid.Row
=
"1"
Grid.Column
=
"1"
>
<
telerik:RadRibbonBar
BackstageClippingElement
=
"{Binding ElementName=RibbonGrid}"
>
<
telerik:RadRibbonBar.Backstage
>
<
telerik:RadRibbonBackstage
/>
</
telerik:RadRibbonBar.Backstage
>
</
telerik:RadRibbonBar
>
</
Grid
>
</
Grid
>
The RadRibbonBackstage comes with full support for all our predefined themes (Office Black, Office Blue, Office Silver, Summer, Vista, Windows 7, Transparent, Expression Dark), so you can choose the most suitable for your needs.
Here is a screenshot of the end result of the demo application:
So what do you think about the new Backstage View? Please share your feedback.