A new OfficeNavigationBar-based ribbon template for Windows desktop SDI - YOUR FEEDBACK IS NEEDED!

We are considering the addition of the new WinForms SDI ribbon template with the OfficeNavigationBar component on it in v16.1, so I wanted to share our initial thoughts on it and also ask a few questions. First, this is approximately what it would look like in action: 

Expectedly, there will also be animated transitions while switching the screens (like in our WinForms Outlook Inspired App demo). Pixel-hunters might also notice there are less borders between the navigation panel and the view site. The latter is possible because the navigation control is no longer hosted inside a dock panel (so no floating is available as well), which confused application end-users in the past and caused other difficulties. As a result, we hope the whole UI is more clean and easy to read than it was before.

RE: WinForms Outlook-Style Navigation Controls (Coming soon in v14.1)

I am writing this post in response to the recent blog from our WinForms team: https://community.devexpress.com/blogs/thinking/archive/2014/05/09/winforms-outlook-style-navigation-controls-coming-soon-in-v14-1.aspx. There were a lot of comments on whether it is possible to have this feature in XAF. Well, it is possible and this integration is quite easy if you really need it. After all, an XAF app is nothing more than a standard WinForms or ASP.NET Web Forms app, which means that the same approaches can be applied to develop it. The XAF documentation describes most of the integration scenarios and our support team is also ready to help if you are in a need for something special.

Another good news is that here, it is all standard and you just need basic WinForms development skills and a minute or two to follow the How to: Customize a Windows Forms Template article from the XAF's documentation.

Caution: I was not planning on replicating Outlook 2013 by any means here, but just experimented with alternative navigation controls. I also removed the status bar, placed the navigation bar under the main view site and did not use tree-like navigation in groups on purpose, because it was not very suitable just for this simple demo app. Replicating the Office 2013 UI requires additional customizations of templates and other UI elements, and is not covered in this post.