Question

My application has a single page with an explicit dark background (dark image), but the rest of the application uses the system colors. Is there a way to use the merged dictionary technique outlined here, but only for a single page, in order to not have to explicitly set the colors (and styles for TextBox controls, etc) on each control one by one?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The technique you have linked to is not limited to the App.xaml. It can be used in any definition of a ResourceDictionary. Everywhere you see a Resources property an implicit ResourceDictionary is created for you when it is accessed. However in all these places you can also explicitly define one. This will allow you to also manipulate its MergedDictionaries property.

 <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
    <Grid.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <ResourceDicitonary.MergedDictionaries>
                <ResourceDictionary Source="urlToAnotherXamlFile" />
            </ResourceDicitonary.MergedDictionaries> 
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Grid.Resources>
    .... Content ....
 </Grid>