Centering text vertically and horizontally in TextBlock and PasswordBox in windows store app

Question

I am trying to center the text in a TextBlock and PasswordBox.

In TextBlock I use TextAlignment Property to center the text horizontally, but it still close to the top. How to center the text vertically?

And in PasswordBox there is no property associate with the text alignment, how to achieve this??

Answer 1

TextAlignment is for horizontal alignment. TextBlock itself doesn't suport vertical alignment.

I suggest put a border around it and let border do vertical alignment:

<Border BorderBrush="{x:Null}" Height="50">
    <TextBlock Text="Your text" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
</Border>

Or other way would be using height and set padding within textblock.

For password box use in WPF:

<PasswordBox HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" VerticalContentAlignment="Center" />

For Silverlight you will need to extract the actual template of passwordbox (use blend it allows you to edit template and copy that) then you can change the members (on ContentElement which is of type Border) with template binding like:

HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"

You can get the template also at this msdn link.

For passworbox in Silverlight update password box style in your xaml as this:

        <ControlTemplate x:Key="ValidationToolTipTemplate">
        <Grid x:Name="Root" Margin="5,0" RenderTransformOrigin="0,0" Opacity="0">
            <Grid.RenderTransform>
                <TranslateTransform x:Name="xform" X="-25"/>
            </Grid.RenderTransform>
            <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                <VisualStateGroup Name="OpenStates">
                    <VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                        <VisualTransition GeneratedDuration="0"/>
                        <VisualTransition To="Open" GeneratedDuration="0:0:0.2">
                            <Storyboard>
                                <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="xform" Storyboard.TargetProperty="X" To="0" Duration="0:0:0.2">
                                    <DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction>
                                        <BackEase Amplitude=".3" EasingMode="EaseOut"/>
                                    </DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction>
                                </DoubleAnimation>
                                <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Root" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" To="1" Duration="0:0:0.2"/>
                            </Storyboard>
                        </VisualTransition>
                    </VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                    <VisualState x:Name="Closed">
                        <Storyboard>
                            <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Root" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" To="0" Duration="0"/>
                        </Storyboard>
                    </VisualState>
                    <VisualState x:Name="Open">
                        <Storyboard>
                            <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="xform" Storyboard.TargetProperty="X" To="0" Duration="0"/>
                            <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Root" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" To="1" Duration="0"/>
                        </Storyboard>
                    </VisualState>
                </VisualStateGroup>
            </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>

            <Border Margin="4,4,-4,-4" Background="#052A2E31" CornerRadius="5"/>
            <Border Margin="3,3,-3,-3" Background="#152A2E31" CornerRadius="4"/>
            <Border Margin="2,2,-2,-2" Background="#252A2E31" CornerRadius="3"/>
            <Border Margin="1,1,-1,-1" Background="#352A2E31" CornerRadius="2"/>

            <Border Background="#FFDC000C" CornerRadius="2"/>
            <Border CornerRadius="2">
                <TextBlock 
              UseLayoutRounding="false" 
              Foreground="White" Margin="8,4,8,4" MaxWidth="250" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding (Validation.Errors)[0].ErrorContent}"/>
            </Border>
        </Grid>
    </ControlTemplate>
    <Style TargetType="PasswordBox">
        <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="1" />
        <Setter Property="Background" Value="#FFFFFFFF" />
        <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="#FF000000" />
        <Setter Property="Padding" Value="2" />
        <Setter Property="BorderBrush">
            <Setter.Value>
                <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0">
                    <GradientStop Color="#FFA3AEB9" Offset="0"/>
                    <GradientStop Color="#FF8399A9" Offset="0.375"/>
                    <GradientStop Color="#FF718597" Offset="0.375"/>
                    <GradientStop Color="#FF617584" Offset="1"/>
                </LinearGradientBrush>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="PasswordBox">
                    <Grid x:Name="RootElement">
                        <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                            <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                                <VisualState x:Name="Normal" />
                                <VisualState x:Name="MouseOver">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ColorAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="MouseOverBorder" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.BorderBrush).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" To="#FF99C1E2" Duration="0"/>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                                <VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledVisualElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" To="1" Duration="0"/>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                            </VisualStateGroup>
                            <VisualStateGroup x:Name="FocusStates">
                                <VisualState x:Name="Focused">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="FocusVisualElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" To="1" Duration="0"/>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                                <VisualState x:Name="Unfocused">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="FocusVisualElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" To="0" Duration="0"/>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                            </VisualStateGroup>
                            <VisualStateGroup x:Name="ValidationStates">
                                <VisualState x:Name="Valid"/>
                                <VisualState x:Name="InvalidUnfocused">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ValidationErrorElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" >
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                    <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                            </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                                <VisualState x:Name="InvalidFocused">
                                    <Storyboard>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ValidationErrorElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" >
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                    <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                            </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="validationTooltip" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsOpen">
                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" >
                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                    <sys:Boolean>True</sys:Boolean>
                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                            </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    </Storyboard>
                                </VisualState>
                            </VisualStateGroup>
                        </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>

                        <Border x:Name="Border" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" CornerRadius="1" Opacity="1" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}">
                            <Border x:Name="MouseOverBorder" BorderThickness="1" BorderBrush="Transparent">
                                <Border x:Name="ContentElement" Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}" HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"/>
                            </Border>
                        </Border>
                        <Border x:Name="DisabledVisualElement" Background="#A5F7F7F7" BorderBrush="#A5F7F7F7" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Opacity="0" IsHitTestVisible="False"/>
                        <Border x:Name="FocusVisualElement" BorderBrush="#FF6DBDD1" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Margin="1" Opacity="0" IsHitTestVisible="False"/>
                        <Border x:Name="ValidationErrorElement" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="1" BorderBrush="#FFDB000C" Visibility="Collapsed">
                            <ToolTipService.ToolTip>
                                <ToolTip x:Name="validationTooltip" Template="{StaticResource ValidationToolTipTemplate}" Placement="Right" 
                                       PlacementTarget="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}" 
                                       DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}">
                                    <ToolTip.Triggers>
                                        <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Canvas.Loaded">
                                            <EventTrigger.Actions>
                                                <BeginStoryboard>
                                                    <Storyboard>
                                                        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="validationTooltip" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsHitTestVisible">
                                                            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" >
                                                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                                    <sys:Boolean>true</sys:Boolean>
                                                                </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                            </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                                        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                    </Storyboard>
                                                </BeginStoryboard>
                                            </EventTrigger.Actions>
                                        </EventTrigger>
                                    </ToolTip.Triggers>
                                </ToolTip>
                            </ToolTipService.ToolTip>
                            <Grid Width="12" Height="12" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="1,-4,-4,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Background="Transparent">
                                <Path Margin="1,3,0,0" Data="M 1,0 L6,0 A 2,2 90 0 1 8,2 L8,7 z" Fill="#FFDC000C"/>
                                <Path Margin="1,3,0,0" Data="M 0,0 L2,0 L 8,6 L8,8" Fill="#ffffff"/>
                            </Grid>
                        </Border>
                    </Grid>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>

Then your PasswordBox can have alignment as such:

<PasswordBox HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" VerticalContentAlignment="Center"/>

Answer 2

Change the TextBlock to a Label. A Label has a VerticalContentAlignment property which is used to center the content vertically.

Answer 3

This would do the horizontal alignment only.

For Horizental/Vertical both, better go with Label instead of TextBlock.