#323 – Provide Space Around StackPanel Children Using Margin
June 17, 2011 3 Comments
By default, StackPanel provides no extra space around the child controls that it contains, but packs them tightly.
<StackPanel>
<Label Content="Gene Autry the singing cowboy" Background="Pink"/>
<Button Content="I Like Gene" />
<Label Content="Roy Rogers" Background="Aqua"/>
<Button Content="I Like Roy Rogers Yes I Do"/>
<Label Content="Spade Cooley had a sad story" Background="DodgerBlue"/>
</StackPanel>
You can specify a margin that should be used around the outside of each control using the Margin property.
<StackPanel>
<Label Content="Gene Autry the singing cowboy" Background="Pink" Margin="5"/>
<Button Content="I Like Gene" Margin="5"/>
<Label Content="Roy Rogers" Background="Aqua" Margin="5"/>
<Button Content="I Like Roy Rogers Yes I Do" Margin="5"/>
<Label Content="Spade Cooley had a sad story" Background="DodgerBlue" Margin="5"/>
</StackPanel>
In this example, we used a single value whenever we set the Margin property. This causes the container to add the specified margin (in WPF units) along all four sides of the child control.
About Sean
2,000 Things You Should Know About WPF 
Is there a way to do this using styles so that you don’t have to repeat the margin value?
Absolutely. That’s actually a good idea, because it moves that margin value into a single spot. Here’s the example re-written to use a style that just specifies the Margin:
<Window.Resources> <Style x:Key="smallMargin" TargetType="FrameworkElement"> <Setter Property="Margin" Value="5"/> </Style> </Window.Resources> <StackPanel> <Label Content="Gene Autry the singing cowboy" Background="Pink" Style="{StaticResource smallMargin}"/> <Button Content="I Like Gene" Style="{StaticResource smallMargin}"/> <Label Content="Roy Rogers" Background="Aqua" Style="{StaticResource smallMargin}"/> <Button Content="I Like Roy Rogers Yes I Do" Style="{StaticResource smallMargin}"/> <Label Content="Spade Cooley had a sad story" Background="DodgerBlue" Style="{StaticResource smallMargin}"/> </StackPanel>Pingback: #429 – Child Element Properties that Affect Layout « 2,000 Things You Should Know About WPF