Silverlight 1.0 for Designers (3 day)

Course Overview

This three day instructor led training course will teach designers and developers wanting to create rich front end applications, how to use the Expression Studio product set to build rich and compelling user experiences based on the Silverlight 1.0 platform.

The course will consist of approximately 40% instructor presentation and 60% hands on lab activities, which will provide students the opportunity to gain solid hands on experience with Silverlight and the Expression Studio products.

Audience

The Primary Audience is Designers - which includes graphics and Web designers currently familiar with tools such as Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and Dreamweaver. The course is also relevant for those developers wanting to create rich front end applications.

Skills Gained

• Describe the key features of Silverlight.
• Describe the people, tools, and tool workflow associated with creating Silverlight experiences.
• Create and manipulate images by using Expression Design.
• Create Expression Blend projects.
• Assemble and build a rich user interface by using Expression Blend.
• Develop and customize media by using Expression Encoder.
• Hand off design projects and graphical assets to developers.
• Develop basic code in a Silverlight project.
• Enhance the user experience by using keyboard interactivity, text effects, and ink.
• Develop advanced animation effects.
• Develop advanced media effects.
• Publish a Silverlight application.

Prerequisites

No specific product and technology experience is required for this course.

Course Outline

Introduction

Module 1: Fundamentals of Microsoft Silverlight

• This lesson introduces Silverlight, provides demonstrations of its capabilities and features and compares the abilities of Silverlight 1.0 to the emerging capabilities of Silverlight 1.1 Alpha.
• This lesson also explains the component architecture of Silverlight and describes the main tools that are used to develop Silverlight content.
• This lesson provides an overview of XAML by explaining its key concepts. Having a firm knowledge of these concepts will greatly aid you when creating a Silverlight application. It is essential to understand these concepts if you want to add interactivity to your application.

Module 2: Introducing the Workflow for Building Experiences in Microsoft Silverlight

• This lesson introduces the Silverlight workflow by describing the designer-developer roles.
• This lesson also describes the collaborative workflow of the Expression Studio tools that are used in the creation of Silverlight content.

Module 3: Preparing Images by Using Microsoft Expression Design

• This lesson introduces Expression Design, provides an overview of the UI, and explains the main features of the application. The lesson also demonstrates how you use the application.
• This lesson describes how to use the export and import functionality of Expression Design. At the end of this lesson, you will create bitmap images and vector-based artwork to produce a button.

Module 4: Introducing Microsoft Expression Blend

• This lesson provides an overview of Expression Blend, introduces its main features, and explains how to use Expression Blend to create a Silverlight project. The lesson describes the UI for Expression Blend and explains the purpose of many of its tools and panels.
• This lesson explains the Expression Blend project structure, and shows how to build a new Silverlight project and import digital assets into that project.
• This lesson tackles a subject of primary importance to a designer. It explains the concept behind the object tree and how the Objects panel represents this. It explains how to use Canvases in Expression Blend and the parent-child object relationship.