Design-time configuration: the Properties window and XAML

The design-time experience in one minute (WPF)

You configure WpfHtmlEditor at design time through the Visual Studio Properties window and directly in XAML (with IntelliSense). WPF has no WinForms-style Smart Tag -- there is no arrow-glyph panel on a WPF control, and there never was one for this editor. That is normal for WPF and is not a missing feature.

Adding toolbar items is a separate, code/XAML/binding task (the toolbars are factory-built); see Adding New Items to the WPF Editor Toolbar in the Toolbar Customization section.

There is no Smart Tag on WPF -- use the Properties window and XAML

The Smart Tag is a WinForms designer concept. On WPF you set the same kinds of settings either in the Properties window or straight in XAML. The commonly-configured properties are:

The WPF design-time assembly is .NET Framework only -- behavior on modern .NET

Design-time support for the WPF control (its separate design-time assembly) is built for .NET Framework (net45 / net472 / net48) only, so the richest design-time tooling appears when your host targets .NET Framework. On modern .NET (.NET 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) you still set every property at design time through the Properties window and XAML IntelliSense, and at runtime in code. Because there was never a Smart Tag or a design-surface toolbar editor on WPF, nothing functional is missing on modern .NET -- the difference is limited to design-time tooling richness, not capability.

Configuring the control at design time

Set properties as XAML attributes (with IntelliSense) or in the Properties window; the same things are settable in code:

<wpfeditor:WpfHtmlEditor x:Name="Editor"
                         Language="German"
                         EditorMode="WysiwygDesign" />

Adding toolbar items is a code/XAML/binding task -- see Adding New Items to the WPF Editor Toolbar in the Toolbar Customization section.

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