Create a new project

  • Article

You can create a project to design a desktop application that is based on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), or a web application that is based on Microsoft Silverlight. Regardless of the technology that you choose, the visual design experience is the same.

To create a new WPF project

  1. On the File menu, click New Project.

    Cc295275.f60e8b59-50de-4da1-9ba8-722dc5394d9d(en-us,Expression.30).png

  2. In the New Project dialog box, under Project types, click WPF.

    Cc295275.23a81768-ebce-47b4-a70d-c58fd347f8fb(en-us,Expression.30).png

  3. Select one of the following types of projects:

    • WPF Application   A project for creating a desktop application.

    • WPF Control Library   A project for creating custom controls that can be reused in other WPF projects.

  4. In the Name box, type a name for the project.

  5. In the Location box, type the name of or browse to the folder where you want to store the project. By default, this is a folder named Blend Projects in your My Documents folder.

  6. On the Language menu, select a programming language (Visual C# or Visual Basic).

    Note

    In general, you can bypass selecting a programming language and just use the default, which is C#. (Using C# creates .cs files.) However, there may be times when the developer who is working on your application may want to indicate a specific programming language (for example, Microsoft Visual Basic, which creates .vb files) for ease of use, for familiarity, to integrate the project files more easily with legacy code, or for another reason.

  7. Click OK.

    Microsoft Expression Blend creates a new project and opens it for editing. You can now begin creating content in the main page (MainWindow.xaml) of your project.

    For a list of the files that are generated by Expression Blend and a description for each file, see the section "The files in a WPF project," in Managing solutions, projects, and files.

To create a new Silverlight project

  1. On the File menu, click New Project (CTRL+SHIFT+N).

    Cc295275.f60e8b59-50de-4da1-9ba8-722dc5394d9d(en-us,Expression.30).png

  2. In the New Project dialog box, under Project types, click Silverlight.

    Cc295275.c1f53de8-8edc-4ace-87f0-de702852cb7a(en-us,Expression.30).png

  3. From the list on the right side of the dialog box, select one of the following types of projects:

    • Silverlight 3 Application + Website   A project with an associated website that you can publish to a web server.

    • Silverlight 3 Application   A project that creates an application that can be run in the Silverlight runtime viewer, inside or outside a browser window. The project includes an HTML test page named Default.html that will load your application in a browser window.

      Tip

      The HTML test page is overwritten every time that you build or test your project. If you want to modify the test page for your own use, save it to a different location first.

    • Silverlight 3 Control Library   A project for creating custom controls that can be reused in other Silverlight projects.

  4. Next to Name, type a name for your project. This will become the name of the project folder and the name of your application's namespace.

    Tip

    Namespace is a Microsoft .NET Framework term for the name that identifies your application to other applications. For more information, see Understanding and Using Assemblies and Namespaces in .NET on MSDN.

  5. Next to Location, verify the path of the folder in which you want to save your project. To select a different folder, click Browse.

  6. In the Language drop-down list, select the programming language for your code-behind files (Visual Basic or Visual C#).

  7. Click OK.

    A Silverlight project is created and opened for editing. You can now begin creating content in the main page (MainPage.xaml) of your project.

    For a list of the files that are generated by Expression Blend and a description for each file, see the section "The files in a Silverlight project," in Managing solutions, projects, and files.

Next steps

You can design the user interface of your application by adding objects to the main document. For more information, see Drawing objects.