Office Black theme in Q1 2010

[lee_bnsf]

I just upgraded to the latest internal build for SL4 RTM (416.1010), and it appears as though the Office Black theme is no longer the default theme or else it has changed drastically!  How can I get back to the Office Black theme for all of my Telerik Silverlight controls?

Thanks,
Lee

[Sia]

Hi lee_bnsf,

With our 2010.Q1 Release we introduced a major face-lift of all 6 themes we provide including the "Office Black" one due to inconsistencies in the visual appearance among the controls. "Office Black" is still the default theme. Please tell us what are your concerns about it (which controls and what in their look) so we can provide you with the most appropriate solution. 

Sincerely yours,
Sia
the Telerik team

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[lee_bnsf]

Ok.  So far it's really just the chart control that I'm concerned about.  The previous Office Black theme was exactly what I needed so if you can get me that xaml that would be great.

Thanks!
Lee

[Sia]

Hi lee_bnsf,

Please see the attached project. There you can find all styles which you need to overwrite to have the new Office Black theme look closer to the old one.

All the best,
Sia
the Telerik team

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[EpiqDev]

I am in the same boat as the OP except that I'm still using Visual Studio 2008 and Silverlight 3.
Can I use the file that has been uploaded here in my Silverlight 3 application?
I tried to customize the old Rad Chart theme and somehow merge with the current one (so the background color would be black) but it looks like the background was created using an Image Brush with the jpg file residing inside a dll file.

[Sia]

Hi Tom Mark,

Yes, you can use the attached project. The approach used there works no matter what version of Silverlight is used.

You are right that there is an image, which you need to set as background to achieve the desired old "Office Black" look. You can find it in the attached project.

If you need additional directions how to customize the theme you use, just contact us again.

Greetings,
Sia
the Telerik team

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[Anne Lyon]

I agree that this was a major change to the chart which should not appear in a patch release! This is causing me headaches as the users have defined the looks of the charts to be OfficeBlack per default with the option of changing to OfficeSilver which looks nicer when printed on paper. This theme swap was just done with a context menu and a few lines of code...
Does this mean that I cannot any longer use StyleManager.SetTheme to set the chart theme anymore? If I try to set the Theme to office_SilverTheme in the latest versoin then Telerik crashes...

[Sia]

Hello Anne Lyon,

The major change concerning the Office Black theme was introduced with our 2010.Q1 release. We understand that its new look could be too drastic change for your application. Please be sure that the significant changes were forced by the need of making our controls more consistent and better looking across all themes.

We understand that it is a matter of personal perceptions and we provide our customers with custom styles when the new look does not meet their requirements.

Regarding your concern about setting different theme, I didn't manage to reproduce your problem with the latest binaries by having the following line in my code:

StyleManager.SetTheme(RadChart1, new Office_BlueTheme());

Could you please send us a sample project reproducing your issue?

Thank you,
Sia
the Telerik team

Do you want to have your say when we set our development plans? Do you want to know when a feature you care about is added or when a bug fixed? Explore the Telerik Public Issue Tracking system and vote to affect the priority of the items.

[aaka]

Hello, I have created a support ticket with two sample projects. One with a 2009 build which works fine, one with latest 2010 build whiere themes and GUI does not longer work as intended.

[Dennis]

QUESTION:  Is it a possibility to "port" the old themes (all of them) to the new version(s)? 

My customers absolutely dislike the new themes, they are used to and like the previous themes.  I had built multiple custom themes based on the old themes which no longer work with the new version.  Although I haven't tried the project included in this thread, I would really need this to be done in the theme's actual XAML, not by changing the style in my project. 

[Sia]

Hi Dennis,

Thank you for your feedback. Actually "porting" the old themes again is not an option because we have upgraded them. You can achieve the old look if you have a custom theme, but as you know maintaining such theme is a time-consuming task.

It's a pity that your clients do not like the improved look and we would be very grateful to you for sharing more details on this subject.

Which theme do you want to be reverted? Why don't you like the new ones? What do you want to be changed?

The good news is that we consider introducing new themes. That is why your feedback (positive or negative) will do us a favor.

Best wishes,
Sia
the Telerik team