Question

Can anyone suggest the best way to display a Textblock (with a text such as “List Empty”) so that it’s visibility is bound to the Items.Count.

I have tried the following code and can’t get it to work, so think that I must be doing it wrong.

    <ListBox x:Name="lstItems" 
        ItemsSource="{Binding ListItems}">
    </ListBox>
    <TextBlock Margin="4" FontStyle="Italic" FontSize="12" Text="List is empty" Visibility="Collapsed">
        <TextBlock.Style>
            <Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
                <Style.Triggers>
                    <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding ElementName=lstItems, Path=Items.Count}" Value="0">
                        <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible" />
                    </DataTrigger>  
                </Style.Triggers>
            </Style>                            
        </TextBlock.Style>
    </TextBlock>

Answer 1

The problem in your code is that setting the value of Visibility in the text block itself has higher priority than setting it in the style. So, even when the trigger occurs, the setting inside the trigger has no effect. Change the XAML to:

  <TextBlock Margin="4" FontStyle="Italic" FontSize="12" Text="List is empty" >
    <TextBlock.Style>
        <Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
           <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Collapsed" />
            <Style.Triggers>
                <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding ElementName=lstItems, Path=Items.Count}" Value="0">
                    <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible" />
                </DataTrigger>  
            </Style.Triggers>
        </Style>                            
    </TextBlock.Style>
  </TextBlock>

Where the setting of Visibility is all in the style and it works (at least in my demo project).