For what reasons should I use Expression Blend over XAML Designer? [closed]

Question

Forgive me if this isn't the right place to ask (and please move my thread accordingly if it isn't).

I've been developing WPF application for about a year or so and I basically do all my design in XAML Designer in VS. Aside from few oddities, I've felt pretty comfortable with it and never felt the need to seek out another design tool for WPF applications. (Except for Kaxaml, but that's still in the realm of XAML Designer)

I've looked at threads and videos demonstrating what Expression Blend does and, sure it's fancy but it's nothing that you can't do with plain old XAML Editor.

Some say that Expression Blend is a tool intended mostly for designers, but I fail to see this point. You need to have software development knowledge in order to properly develop an WPF application even if you are just going to be doing designs.

• What are some things that Expression Blend can do while XAML Designer in VS can't?
• For what other reasons should I feel compelled to design a WPF application in Expression Blend?

Answer 1

Saying "[Expression Blend is] fancy but it's nothing that you can't do with plain old XAML Editor" is like asking why you would use Photoshop when you can just do the same thing in MS Paint.

Sure you can, but you're not going to be very productive.

A few things that I always use Blend for (as opposed to XAML editor or even the Visual Studio designer):

• Brushes and color. Blend's UI is simply nicer than VS Designer
• Animations and Storyboards. (I may later edit them in XAML, but the initial ones if they are complex are easier and quicker to do in Blend)
• Visual States. VS Visual designer doesn't support this and they are tricky to do manually
• Editing styles and templates. Especially convenient is using Blend's "Create Copy" on an existing template
• The property editor is more pleasant to use (for example, click + drag mouse sideways to increase/decrease int value) and more thought through presentation and grouping of the properties

That said - the bulk of my XAML work is done in the plain XML editor in Visual Studio though (I rarely use the designer). But I wouldn't dream of doing any serious WPF development without Blend

Answer 2

I can say that Blend is more oriented for Graphic Designer, and Visual Studio for Developper.

What I mean is in Blend, you can do everything just with a mouse click, animations are very easy to create step by step with a few mouse click, triggers are created by mouse click also. Basically, you don't have to go in the code for most of the time.

For other reasons I really like Blend, is you can click on something, and edit (Edit current, or a copy) of the Style, you don't have to search where is located...

In our team, our graphic designer only works with Blend, and our developer works in VS and Blend.