"Pro WPF with VB 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5"
) If you don??™t set the Width and Height properties, your element will get its desired size??”in other words, it will grow just large enough to fit its content. Here??™s a simple Canvas that includes four buttons:
Figure 4-17 shows the result. CHAPTER 4 n LAYOUT 107 Figure 4-17. Explicitly positioned buttons in a Canvas If you resize the window, the Canvas stretches to fill the available space, but none of the controls in the Canvas moves or changes size. The Canvas doesn??™t include any of the anchoring or docking features that were provided with coordinate layout in Windows Forms. Part of the reason for this gap is to keep the Canvas lightweight. Another reason is to prevent people from using the Canvas for purposes for which it??™s not intended (such as laying out a standard user interface). Like any other layout container, the Canvas can be nested inside a user interface. That means you can use the Canvas to draw some detailed content in a portion of your window, while using more standard WPF panels for the rest of your elements.