Toolbars are the main building blocks of your navigation system. They are also the base for main menus and status bars (specialized toolbars). The primary benefit of a "universal" building block is that you can get up to speed with DXBars quickly once you learn to handle one toolbar type, you don t need to learn anything else.

After you ve created all commands (toolbar items) you require, you can populate a toolbar with links to commands. There's no direct command-toolbar binding, because you may need to use the same command in multiple bar locations. For instance, the same button can be displayed in a toolbar, the main menu and a context menu. Since you have the same command object bound to several toolbars or menus, you can change the command's settings in one place and all toolbars will be automatically updated.

When you create a toolbar system with DXBars for WPF, the following features are available to you:

• Automatic Toolbar Drag and Drop
  

  You can dock a toolbar to any container edge or make it float.

  

  It's also possible to dock a toolbar at any position within your window. This can be accomplished by placing a bar container object at this position. For instance, in this way you can create a standalone bar.

  

  Toolbars can be arranged in multiple lines, if required.

• Various Bar Item Types
  

  The DXBars library allow you to display multiple item (command) types within toolbars: buttons, check buttons, menus, embedded editors, special containers, etc. See Toolbar/Menu Items, to learn more.

  

  For bar items you can provide small or large images, captions and tooltips. An end-user can easily customize the layout of bar items at runtime in Customization Mode.

• End-User Layout Customization

  End-users can easily customize the layout according to their needs: create new toolbars, remove commands from toolbars, add hidden commands back to toolbars, etc. See Bars Layout Customization and Persistence, to learn more.

• Small or large images for bar items
  For each bar item you can display either a small or large image:

  

  If two images are specified for each command - large and small - an end-user can switch between these display styles in Customization Mode:

  

• Fitting to Container Size
  By default, toolbar size depends upon its content. If you want to stretch a toolbar to fit within a container, simply toggle one option.