

We'll see this at work much later in this series. I created a simple Phone project called XAMLResources with the simplest which is used for binding data (i.e., usually generic lists of custom types with their properties set to the data we want to work with in our app) to on page elements. In that case, you can create a resource and then bind to it as needed. Suppose you have a particular color or setting that you know you’ll want to re-use throughout a page or the entire app, or a color or setting that you may want to change occasionally and you want to make the change in one place and have it reflected everywhere that style is used, similar to a Cascading Style Sheet style. Finally, we’ll talk about the pre-built themes that are available so that we can force consistency across all apps on a given user’s phone. Primarily, I’ll talk about creating re-usable resources and styles that can be shared between many elements whether on the same page or the same application. In this lesson, I’m going to talk about the technical aspects of working with XAML to style your app. So, you’ll want to know the rules and know when to break them. However, even inside of those guidelines, there is room for creative expression and branding. If you search online for “windows phone style guide” you’ll find official documents from Microsoft that outline these suggestions. I’m not just talking about the tile-based user interface, but also the colors and typography. The Windows Phone operating system has a distinctive look and feel. Download the source code for this lesson at
