Objects and Timeline panel

The Objects and Timeline panel in Blend for Visual Studio 2012 helps you perform the following tasks:

The Objects and Timeline panel as it appears when you view a storyboard in recording mode

c42f7b48-05c4-4aef-84dc-1d5680dcc935

Objects and Timeline panel

25182a96-9a69-478a-9cfe-5b360e6a9bea

Objects view   Shows the visual tree of a document. You can use the hierarchical nature of the objects view to drill down to varying levels of detail. Layers can be added to the objects view to further organize the objects on the artboard, allowing them to be locked and hidden as a group. The width of the objects view can be adjusted by dragging the split bar to the left of the lock column to the desired width.

05fe4b1d-f584-4bd2-99b6-8bc2d735a89d

Record mode indicator   Indicates when you are recording property changes in a timeline.

f0c1ff71-7814-42ba-806b-7ea92d616e69

Storyboard picker   Shows a list of storyboards you have created.

eb6fad93-f17e-4f62-a926-8c8651862891

Storyboard options   Provides options, in a pop-up menu, that you can use to duplicate, reverse, delete, rename, or close a storyboard. You can also create a new storyboard.

a5d608f2-bba2-48c5-8b15-2c115db86acc

Playback controls   Provides storyboard controls that you can use to navigate through the timeline. You can also drag the playhead to navigate through (or scrub) the timeline.

15de085f-48f5-41dd-a286-e3dcb4cfd18b

Return scope to   Scopes the objects view back to the previous root object or previous scope. Scoping up is applicable only when you are modifying a style or template.

1d2fe38a-3fd8-4951-b978-7e44b6f2401d

Record a keyframe   Records a snapshot of the properties of the selected object at the current point in time.

1aa736bd-cd0d-4514-a5e4-b495d11d4870

Show/hide, Lock/unlock   Provides visibility and locking options for the objects view.

272b5149-46f2-4633-ae61-88dfb9c58b7e

Playhead position on the timeline   Shows the current time in milliseconds (HH:mm:xxx). You can also enter a time value directly in this field to jump to a particular point in time. The precision depends on the snap resolution set in the Snapping Options.

97fa60b9-0caf-4387-9225-b57510d32209

Timeline snapping options   Provides options for setting timeline snapping and snap resolution. When timeline snapping is enabled, the next and previous frame buttons respect the snap resolution set in the Snapping Options dialog box. The snap resolution also determines where on the timeline a keyframe can be set.

b5acdd5b-dc01-4fec-a4b7-641b4cb36f50

Playhead   Indicates what point in time the animation is at. You can drag the playhead across the timeline to preview animation. This technique is called scrubbing.

65bdc0a8-bb2a-4ad1-a136-70070743794a

Keyframes set on timelines   Specifies a change in a property value at a specific point in time. Keyframes have different levels. The keyframes set for the Angle element are simple keyframes, the keyframes set for the RenderTransform element are compound keyframes, and the keyframes set for the DetailsPane object are object-level keyframes.

For more information about keyframes, see "Keyframes," in Animating objects.

fdd3263a-7f0e-4cb0-8b5c-b832a467da62

Change order of objects   Sets the display order of objects. Click this button to arrange objects in the structure view by Z order (front-to-back) or by markup order (the order in which they appear in XAML view).

d839d12c-07a1-4127-a830-4a8e7069f4fe

Timeline zoom   Sets the zoom resolution of the timeline. Zooming in lets you edit an animation with more detail, and zooming out shows more of an overview of what is happening over longer periods of time. If you zoom in but can't set a keyframe at the position in time that you want, verify that the snap resolution is set high enough.

24a7a2bf-4b8f-4cbd-a8e8-51fc98983d9a

Timeline composition area   Shows the timeline, and lets you move keyframes around by dragging them or using their shortcut menus.