Applying same style to multiple elements

Question

I am new to using WPF and I was trying to apply Style (e.g. Background for TextBox, Button and MenuItem should be Orange). To achieve this I did something like:

<Style TargetType="TextBox" x:Key="sampleTextBox">
    <Setter Property="Margin" Value="2"/>
    <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="Verdana"/>
    <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="11px"/>
    <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Bold"/>
    <Setter Property="Background">
        <Setter.Value>
            <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="0,1" >
                <GradientStop Color="#FFFFD190" Offset="0.2"/>
                <GradientStop Color="Orange" Offset="0.85"/>
                <GradientStop Color="#FFFFD190" Offset="1"/>
            </LinearGradientBrush>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>

and repeated the same piece of code for targettype Button and for target menu. This is working absolutely fine. But I would like to minimize the amount of repeated code by probably having multiple targettype values.

Please let me know if it is possible.

Thanks.

Answer 1

  <Window.Resources>
    <Style x:Key="sampleTextBox">
        <Setter Property="Control.FontFamily" Value="Verdana"/>
        <Setter Property="Control.FontSize" Value="11px"/>
        <Setter Property="Control.FontWeight" Value="Bold"/>
        <Setter Property="Control.Background">
            <Setter.Value>
                <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="0,1" >
                    <GradientStop Color="#FFFFD190" Offset="0.2"/>
                    <GradientStop Color="Orange" Offset="0.85"/>
                    <GradientStop Color="#FFFFD190" Offset="1"/>
                </LinearGradientBrush>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>
</Window.Resources>

<StackPanel>
    <TextBlock Text="This is a string and it should be wrapped." Style="{StaticResource sampleTextBox}"/>
    <TextBox Text="This is a string and it should be wrapped." Style="{StaticResource sampleTextBox}"/>
</StackPanel>

Answer 2

Style has an attribute BasedOn. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.style.basedon.aspx With this you can use Style inheritance. Define a base style with common attributes and derive your child styles with specific attributes.