Question

I’d like to have the nested containers inherit that property, but when I set it in the outermost one I’m not sure if it’s working. It either is working but I’m not getting the results I want, or maybe I’d have to set up a property somewhere for it to carry.

Assuming that a) it is possible to do it and b) I’d have to change a property somewhere, would that have any side effects I should be aware of?

EDIT

Ok, here’s an example:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="Test" Width="300" Height="100">
    <Grid ShowGridLines="True">
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <Label Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">Text</Label>
        <TextBox Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1">I'm on the Internet</TextBox>
        <Button Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="2">Don't click me</Button>
        <Label Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0">Text2</Label>
        <Slider Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1"></Slider>
        <Button Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="2">Click the other guy</Button>
    </Grid>
</Window>

What I would like to have, without having to do it manually:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="Test" Width="300" Height="100">
    <Grid ShowGridLines="True">
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <Label VerticalAlignment="Center" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">Text</Label>
        <TextBox VerticalAlignment="Center" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1">I'm on the Internet</TextBox>
        <Button VerticalAlignment="Center" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="2">Don't click me</Button>
        <Label VerticalAlignment="Center" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0">Text2</Label>
        <Slider VerticalAlignment="Center" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1"></Slider>
        <Button VerticalAlignment="Center" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="2">Click the other guy</Button>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Although I’m not really sure there was any difference here. It’s not a deal breaker or anything, but I’d like to do it this way.

Answer 1

VisualTree inheritance is not universal. The dependency property specifies that it will inherit down the visual tree when it is declared. In this case, verticalalignment is not.

The only way to get a consistent vertical alignment is to use a style. And you can’t use an implicit style across different types of controls. So you need to create a named style, place it in the resources of the container. Add a setter to the style to set the vertical alignment to whichever value you want. Finally reference the style in all the controls to which you want it applied.

Here is your example done with styles…unfortunately you’re not saving much typing however if your style did something like Set VerticalAlignment and the FontFamily, then you’re saving space…If you think of it like CSS then WPF Styles are easy.

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1" 
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
    Title="Test" Width="300" Height="100"> 
    <Grid ShowGridLines="True"> 
        <Grid.RowDefinitions> 
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/> 
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/> 
        </Grid.RowDefinitions> 
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/> 
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/> 
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/> 
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 
        <Grid.Resources>
            <Style x:Key="setVA" TargetType="{x:Type Control}">
                <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" Value="Center"/>
            </Style>
        </Grid.Resources>
        <Label Style="{StaticResource setVA}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">Text</Label> 
        <TextBox Style="{StaticResource setVA}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1">I'm on the Internet</TextBox> 
        <Button Style="{StaticResource setVA}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="2">Don't click me</Button> 
        <Label Style="{StaticResource setVA}" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0">Text2</Label> 
        <Slider Style="{StaticResource setVA}" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1"></Slider> 
        <Button Style="{StaticResource setVA}" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="2">Click the other guy</Button> 
    </Grid> 
</Window> 

There’s more information on using styles on MSDN