Comprehensive Feature Set

DevExpress WPF Dock Controls ship with a powerful feature set so you can deliver your best, without limits or compromise.

• Visual Studio Style Helper Glyphs
• Tabbed Containers
• Drag & Drop Support
• Built-in Close Buttons
• Closed Panels Toolbar
• Float State Settings
• Automatic Splitter Availability
• Auto-Hide Operation Mode
• User Customization Options
• Built-in Context Menu
• Layout Persistence
• Multiple Monitor Support
• Control Layout and Customization Support

Auto-Hide Panels

Dock panels created with DXDocking replicate the auto-hide functionality of Visual Studio dock windows. In this mode, an Auto-Hide Panel is automatically minimized when the mouse pointer leaves its region (assuming that controls within it do not have input focus).

With our unique implementation, end-users don't have to use pin buttons to toggle auto-hide mode. When dragging a panel, they can dock it and enable auto-hide mode simultaneously, by pointing to a smaller region of the docking glyph, as shown in the following image. You can also dock a panel directly onto the auto-hide headers area - above or below existing dock window headers.

Help Topic: Auto-Hide Panels | How to: Create auto-hidden panels

Access to Closed Panels

With DXDocking for WPF, you can activate a toolbar that displays buttons with closed panel captions. You can press a button to show the corresponding panel. The clicked button disappears and becomes visible only when you close the window.

Help Topic: Dock (Layout) Panels | How to: Create closed (hidden) panels

Toolbar-Menu Integration

You can integrate a toolbar or menu into a dock window. It's as simple as adding a toolbar to a standard window.

You can also activate toolbar drag and drop between dock windows and the main window. This feature can be used to visually create a dock panel and toolbar layout. Simply run the application and drag toolbars where necessary and save your layout.

How to: Embed a bar into a dock panel

Classic MDI

Using the DocumentGroup container, you can deliver true MDI interfaces, where documents are represented as floating windows within the parent container. All classic MDI layout features are available to end-users - from maximizing or collapsing windows to automatically arranging them using the Cascade, Vertical Tiling or Horizontal Tiling styles.

Help Topic: MDI Mode | Help Topic: Tabbed Groups | Examples: Creating a TabbedGroup and DocumentGroup groups | Examples: How to enable MDI mode for a DocumentGroup

Tabbed MDI

In this mode child windows will be displayed as tabbed pages. Even if you don't do so when designing your application, end-users will still be able to choose this layout style by using window title context menus.

Tabbed layout provides a great deal of flexibility for end-users. They can re-order documents by simply dragging tabs within the header panel. If a tab is dragged outside the header panel area, the corresponding document is automatically moved to a newly created window. They can then drag the window back to move the document into a tab.

Tab orientation, position and content are fully customizable. The Tab header panel can also include a dropdown that allows you to switch between documents.

Multi-Monitor Support: If you have a multiple monitor environment, you can easily move documents to your second monitor, so improving your productivity.

Help Topic: MDI Mode | Help Topic: Tabbed Groups | Examples: Creating a TabbedGroup and DocumentGroup groups | Examples: How to enable MDI mode for a DocumentGroup

Window and Document Selector

The DevExpress WPF Docking Library ships with a built-in UI for switching between documents and dock windows. End-users can simply press CTRL+TAB to invoke a Document Selector window that lists all available windows with associated thumbnails when list items are hovered.

Help Topic: Document Selector