Create Visual Studio-inspired dock window interfaces with float, dock, and auto hide windows.
Save the layout states of users on closing and restore them on opening the application.
Organize windows by using tab groups and reordering tabs.

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WPF docking

Overview

The WPF Docking Manager (DockPanel) control provides an interface to create Visual Studio-like dockable windows in your applications. Dock panels support many interactions like docking, floating, tabbing, autohiding and grouping document tabs. Tab groups split the workspace and allow users to work with two or more open documents. Users can resize, move, and change the behavior of windows to create a layout that suits various development models.

WPF Dock Window Data Binding

Data Binding is the process of establishing a connection between the application UI and business logic. Data binding can be unidirectional or bidirectional. The WPF Docking Window has data-binding support to work with popular data sources like SQL Server, Oracle, data tables, and more..

WPF Dock Window Data Binding documentation

Different kind of docking window

Dockable windows can be dragged by users, can float around the screen, and be pinned and unpinned by users. As in Visual Studio, Docking Manager offers different kinds of windows:

Docking window
Floating window
Tabbed window
Pinnable window
Tabbed MDI Window

Learn more about docking windows

WPF Dock and Float Windows

WPF AutoHide window

In the auto-hide state, tool windows display tabs along the tray area on the side of their dock host. The content of the corresponding tool window is displayed in an animated popup when a tab is clicked.

Auto hide window documentation

Close window

Users can close windows interactively through the close option in the UI. Close the active window alone or all tabbed windows.

WPF Docking Close Window

Resizing windows

Users can interactively resize windows using a splitter between windows. Restrict resizing to minimum and maximum sizes for views.

WPF Docking Resize Window

Maximize view

Display the dock windows in maximized view to get more readability and restore interactively.

WPF Docking Maximize Views

Transparent window dragging

The WPF Docking Manager control allows you to turn on or off the option to show a window’s contents while dragging it. When it is set off, a transparent dragging visual effect is used.

WPF Docking with Transparent Window Dragging

Snap and move multiple windows

Snap the float windows and move them together. Separate the snapped float windows by pressing the CTRL key and dragging the float window away from the group.

WPF Docking with Snap Windows

Restrict docking

End users can restrict windows to docking on specific sides of the target dock windows or edges of a form. They can customize the dock hints’ visibility to show dock hints only on a specific side.

WPF Docking Hints documentation

WPF Docking with Drag Providers

Redock to previous location

Built-in redock support saves the previous state of dock or float windows and moves the windows to previous dock or float states after double-clicking on a caption.

WPF Docking Redock

Scroll tabs

Bring the overflow tabs into view through scroll options in the UI. Scroll to the next, previous, first, or last tabs.

WPF Docking with Scrollable Tabs

Docking guides

Display docking guides to indicate the valid drop location for docking panels while dragging the float window. Also customize the appearance of the docking guides.

WPF Docking with Docking Guides

MDI/TDI functionalities

The MDI and TDI functionalities are applicable for the Document window in the DockingManager. So you can change Document window as both Multiple Document Interface and Tabbed Document Interface.

*MDI and TDI Support documentation

MDI

Allows multiple windows to reside under a single parent window in the Docking Manager.

TDI

Allows adding a child window as a document tab in the Docking Manager.

The WPF Docking Manager control provides the support to improve the user experience with a built-in context menu. It helps users to float, close, pin, and move the dock window to a tabbed document and more.

Context menu documentation

WPF Docking with Context Menu

Hide caption

Hide the visibility of a dock window caption to make the dock window appearance a flat panel.

WPF Docking with Hidden Dock Window

Save and restore

Built-in serialization options support saving a dock layout upon closing and restoring it upon opening the application in different formats.

WPF Docking State Persistence documentation

WPF Layout Save and Restore

Complex docking layout

Users can create nested docking layouts with docked windows inside other docked windows, or directly dock them to the main form.

WPF Nested Docking documentation

WPF Docking with Complex Layout

Linked docking

Easily drag the child windows from one docking manager to another by linking different docking managers together.

WPF Linked Docking documentation

WPF Linked Docking

Style

Customize the style of each part of the WPF Docking Manager, such as its dock window header style and tabs styles. Use a rich set of built-in themes inspired by popular interfaces such as Visual Studio, Microsoft Office, and Expression Blend.

WPF Docking Style documentation

WPF Docking Style

Localization

The WPF Docking Manager supports localization to translate the static text to any supported language.

WPF Localization documentation

WPF Docking Localization

Right to left

Right-to-left (RTL) direction setting is available for users working in right-to-left languages like Hebrew, Arabic, or Persian.

WPF Docking in Right-to-Left

WPF Docking Window Code Example

Easily get started with the WPF Docking Window using a few simple lines of XAML and C# code example as demonstrated below. Also explore our WPF Docking Manager Example that shows you how to render and configure the docking window in WPF.

xaml
c#
<syncfusion:DockingManager x:Name="dockingManager"> 
            <ContentControl x:Name="SolutionExplorer"/> 
            <ContentControl x:Name="ToolBox"/> 
            <ContentControl x:Name="Properties"/> 
            <ContentControl x:Name="Output"/> 
            <ContentControl x:Name="StartPage"/> 
        </syncfusion:DockingManager>
using System.Windows; 
using Syncfusion.Windows.Tools.Controls; 
namespace DockingManager_SampleWpfApp1 
{ 
    public partial class MainWindow : Window 
    { 
        public MainWindow() 
        { 
            InitializeComponent(); 
            DockingManager dockingManager = new DockingManager(); 
            ContentControl SolutionExplorer = new ContentControl(); 
            ContentControl ToolBox = new ContentControl(); 
            ContentControl Properties = new ContentControl(); 
            ContentControl Output = new ContentControl(); 
            ContentControl StartPage = new ContentControl(); 
            //Add content controls as child of DockingManager 
            dockingManager.Children.Add(SolutionExplorer); 
            dockingManager.Children.Add(ToolBox); 
            dockingManager.Children.Add(Properties); 
            dockingManager.Children.Add(Output); 
            dockingManager.Children.Add(StartPage); 
            this.Content = dockingManager; 
        } 
    } 
}

Not sure how to create your first WPF Docking? Our documentation can help.

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Frequently Asked Questions

✅ Why should you choose Syncfusion WPF Docking?

Syncfusion WPF Docking provides the following:

Rich, Visual Studio clone-like UI.
Multiple docking states.
Complete customization from container to pin.
Excellent drag and dock support.
Inbuilt, full-screen float window.
State-of-the-art state persistence support.
Complete localization support to add new languages.
Has a simple configuration and APIs.
Is touch-friendly and responsive.
Learn quickly and get started with WPF Docking using its extensive demos and documentation.

✅ Where can I find the Syncfusion WPF Docking demo?

You can find our WPF Docking demo on

GitHub location.

App center location.

Microsoft location.

✅ Can I download and utilize the Syncfusion WPF Docking for free?

No, this is a commercial product and requires a paid license. However, a free community license is also available for companies and individuals whose organizations have less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue, 5 or fewer developers, and 10 or fewer total employees.

✅ How do I get started with Syncfusion WPF Docking?

A good place to start would be our comprehensive getting started documentation.

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