WPF: Why are nested styles not always working?

Question

I'm trying to apply a nested WPF style to a Toolbar. I'd like to have all children of the Toolbar (MenuItems, Buttons, ToggleButtons etc.) to have the specified style.

The problem is, that the nested style definition is applied correctly to some controls like MenuItems, but not to Buttons. What am I doing wrong?

The MenuItem is correctly placed at the bottom of the Toolbar, but the ToggleButton is in the middle:

<Window.Resources>
    <Style x:Key="MyToolbarStyle" TargetType="ToolBar">
        <!-- Setters for Toolbar properties -->
        <Setter Property="Height" Value="80" />

        <!-- Nested setters for children of the Toolbar -->
        <Style.Resources>
            <Style TargetType="MenuItem">
                <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" Value="Bottom" />
            </Style>

            <Style TargetType="ToggleButton">
                <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" Value="Bottom" />
            </Style>
        </Style.Resources>

    </Style>
</Window.Resources>


<Grid >
    <ToolBar VerticalAlignment="Top" Style="{StaticResource MyToolbarStyle}">
        <MenuItem Header="MyMenuItem"  />           <!-- Appears on the bottom like defined in the style-->
        <ToggleButton Content="MyToggleButton" />   <!-- Nested style does not seem to be applied-->
    </ToolBar>
</Grid>

Answer 1

The WPF ToolBar is a special type of control that defines some custom styles for some WPF controls like Button, ToggleButton... full list here, you can identify them by ElementName + StyleKey property name. If you'd like to change a default style for a specific control you will have to modify one of these styles.

Try replacing your style for the ToggleButton with the following:

<Style x:Key="{x:Static ToolBar.ToggleButtonStyleKey}" TargetType="ToggleButton">
    <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" Value="Bottom" />
</Style>