The docking control is fully customizable through styles and templates. Depending on your needs and desires, you can change the entire template of the control or only a part of it. The most common candidates for modification have all been separated out of the global template so that they can be replaced with ease.

The easiest way to customize the docking control is by replacing the images that are used. These can be redefined in your Resource section by declaring a resource that uses one of the predefined static resource keys.

• The close button
• The pin
• The drop down menu
• left, righ, top, bottom and center drop targets

Another easy way to modify the control is by defining some custom styles. There are many different items that can be styled individually. This allows for maximum flexibility.

These items can be styled separately:

• The border buttons
• The ItemControls that manage the border buttons, each side separately so you can have a custom effect for each side such as tilting it so the user can read the label easier.
• The ToolFrame controls (the controls that house your pages and which look similar to TabControls) can be styled as a whole, or
• The header and/or tab pages on the ToolFrames which can contain buttons and are responsible for drag operations can be styled seperatly.
• The splitters that are automatically placed between each ToolFrame.
• The window containers for floating ToolFrames
• The PopupBorder which is used to display ToolFrames that were collapsed to a border but are selected because the mouse hovered over the corresponding border button.
• The layer responsible for handling Drag and drop operation.
• the window that is displayed for switching between active ToolFrame item.

DockingControl also fully supports templating. This is the most powerful feature for customization. By creating custom templates, you can add features or completely change the functionality of the control and it's sub components.

The most frequently templated parts have been separated from the main template so you can do the modifications without having to copy over the entire predefined template. All the items that can have their own style, can also have their own template.

Some exmaples that can be done with the templates:

• Add a button to the splitters so the user can collaps/open them by clicking on a splitter.
• Add buttons to the header of a ToolFrame.
• Change the appearance of the tab items.
• Change the way tab items can be selected (add drop down menus, scrollbars,... to the tab control.
• Add or modify the content on the swtich screen (add a description, add a preview, group tools and documents,..)