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Getting started with Blend for Visual Studio 2012

Blend for Visual Studio 2012 helps you design and build engaging and sophisticated user interfaces by providing you with an accurate design surface and tools that let you visually create and edit Microsoft Windows applications.

Blend is installed when you install Visual Studio. To open , type Blend in the Search box or, in Visual Studio, right-click a project in the Solution Explorer, and then click Open in Blend.

Open in Blend command in Visual Studio

Getting started with Blend

Learn about the Blend workspace by reading the following topics:

  • Areas of the workspace   Become familiar with the menus, panels, panel groups, and the artboard.

  • Making more room to work   Depending on the work that you are doing, you might want to change the locations of the panels, resize them, or move them out of the Blend window to a different location on the desktop.

  • Setting workspace colors and fonts   Use the Options dialog box to configure your workspace the way you want it.

Building Windows Store apps, Windows Phone apps, SketchFlow prototypes, and WPF and Silverlight applications

Learn how to use Blend to develop for different platforms by reading the following topics:

Community resources

You can find community resources at the following sites: