How to set a default Margin for all the controls on all my WPF windows?

Question

I want to set a default Margin of 3 on all the controls I put on all my windows and be able to override this value just on a really few number of items.

I've seen some approaches like doing styles but then I need to style everything, I would prefer something than can be done for all the controls together. I've seen other things like the MarginSetter but looks like it does not traverse subpanels. I want the Margin only on the controls I put at the window, nothing to do with the borders or other things of the visual tree.

Looks something pretty basic to me. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The only solution I can find is to apply the style to each of the controls you are using on the window (I know that's not quite what you want). If you're only using a few different control types it's not too onerous to do something like this:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication7.MainWindow"         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"         xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"         Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">     <Window.Resources>         <!-- One style for each *type* of control on the window -->         <Style TargetType="TextBox">             <Setter Property="Margin" Value="10"/>         </Style>         <Style TargetType="TextBlock">             <Setter Property="Margin" Value="10"/>         </Style>     </Window.Resources>     <StackPanel>         <TextBox Text="TextBox"/>         <TextBlock Text="TextBlock"/>     </StackPanel> </Window> 

Good luck...

Answer 2

You can link all of your Margin properties by referring to a "Thickness" defined in your resources. I just did this in a project...

<!-- somwhere in a resource--> <Thickness  x:Key="CommonMargin" Left="0" Right="14" Top="6" Bottom="0" />  <!-- Inside of a Style --> <Style TargetType="{x:Type Control}" x:Key="MyStyle">      <Setter Property="Margin" Value="{StaticResource CommonMargin}" /> </Style> <!-- Then call the style in a control --> <Button Style="{StaticResource MyStyle}" />  <!-- Or directly on a Control --> <Button Margin="{StaticResource CommonMargin}" /> 

The key for me was figuring out that Margin was defined by "Thickness". Let me know if that's clear enough or if you need me to put it in a fully working XAML example.