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Create a new document or project

To create a new document

1. On the File menu, click New Item, and then do one of the following:
   • Click Window to add a top-level window or dialog box to your project.
   • Click UserControl to define an interface component that you can embed within other parts of your project.
   • Click Page to contain a portion of your project that can be reached by navigation either within a browser-hosted application or navigation window.
   • Click ResourceDictionary to store and share resources among various parts of your project..
2. In the Name box, enter a name for the document if you'd like to rename the file.
3. Select the Include code file check box if you'd like to generate a code-behind file for the new document.

To create a new project

1. On the File menu, click New Project.
2. In the Create New Project dialog box, under Select a project type, click either Standard Application (.exe) or Control Library.
3. In the Name box, enter a name for the project.
4. In the Location box, enter or browse to the folder where you want to store the project. By default, this is a folder named Blend Projects in your My Documents folder.

   The Location box is only available if the Save new projects to the Expression Blend Projects folder option is selected in the Project tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu).

5. In the Language menu, select a programming language (C# or Visual Basic).

   In general, you can bypass selecting a programming language and just use the default, which is C#. (Using C# creates .cs files.) However, there may be times when the developer who is working on your application may want to indicate a specific programming language—for example, Microsoft® Visual Basic® (which creates .vb files)—perhaps for ease of use, familiarity, or to integrate the project files more readily with legacy code.

6. Click OK.
   Microsoft® Expression Blend™ creates a new project and opens it for editing, depending on the following settings that are selected in the Project tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu):
   • Save new projects to the Expression Blend Projects folder   This setting automatically saves your new project to disk in the Expression Blend projects folder, or in the folder that you specified in the Location box of the Create New Project dialog box. Until a project is saved to disk, the project is in a temporary state, and there are some features (such as viewing events or browsing the project) that are unavailable.
   • Create a temporary project on startup   This setting automatically creates a temporary empty project when you start Expression Blend. This temporary project will not be saved to disk, regardless of the previous setting.
   • Use a Grid panel as the default layout for new items   This setting uses a Grid element as the root layout element in your document. If you do not select this setting, a Canvas element is used as the root layout element in your document.

In Expression Blend, you can only create Microsoft® Visual Studio®-compatible projects—you cannot create Visual Studio-compatible solutions (.sln). However, you can open Visual Studio solutions in Expression Blend and work with the projects that are contained within.