How to change color of button when clicked in WP7?

Question

In WP7 whenever a button is clicked ,the background of button becomes white showing that button is clicked and becomes normal on releasing the mouse button.But I want to change the color of button selection from white to orange.How can i dot it?

Solution 1

You are going to have to play with Visual States of that Button control. Following is the default style for Button extracted from Expression Blend:

<Style x:Key="ButtonStyle1" TargetType="Button">
    <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent"/>
    <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"/>
    <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"/>
    <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="{StaticResource PhoneBorderThickness}"/>
    <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilySemiBold}"/>
    <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMediumLarge}"/>
    <Setter Property="Padding" Value="10,3,10,5"/>
    <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="Button">
                <Grid Background="Transparent">
                    <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                        <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                            <VisualState x:Name="Normal"/>
                            <VisualState x:Name="MouseOver"/>
                            <VisualState x:Name="Pressed">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground" Storyboard.TargetName="ContentContainer">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneBackgroundBrush}"/>
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background" Storyboard.TargetName="ButtonBackground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"/>
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush" Storyboard.TargetName="ButtonBackground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"/>
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                            <VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground" Storyboard.TargetName="ContentContainer">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneDisabledBrush}"/>
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush" Storyboard.TargetName="ButtonBackground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="{StaticResource PhoneDisabledBrush}"/>
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background" Storyboard.TargetName="ButtonBackground">
                                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="Transparent"/>
                                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </VisualState>
                        </VisualStateGroup>
                    </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                    <Border x:Name="ButtonBackground" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" CornerRadius="0" Margin="{StaticResource PhoneTouchTargetOverhang}">
                        <ContentControl x:Name="ContentContainer" ContentTemplate="{TemplateBinding ContentTemplate}" Content="{TemplateBinding Content}" Foreground="{TemplateBinding Foreground}" HorizontalContentAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}" VerticalContentAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"/>
                    </Border>
                </Grid>
            </ControlTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>

You will need to change the Pressed visual state to:

(In this case background is changed to Red when the button is pressed)

<VisualState x:Name="Pressed">
    <Storyboard>
        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground" Storyboard.TargetName="ContentContainer">
            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="Red"/>
        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background" Storyboard.TargetName="ButtonBackground">
            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="Red"/>
        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
        <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush" Storyboard.TargetName="ButtonBackground">
            <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="Red"/>
        </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
    </Storyboard>
</VisualState>

Solution 2

If you're developing for Windows phone, Blend is free and it's an incredibly powerful. I would go so far as to say mandatory, I highly recommend you use it. In Blend it's a simple matter of editing the "Pressed" state style.

1. In Visual studio, in Solution Explorer, right click on your XAML page and select "open in Expression Blend"

2. Right Click on the button -> Edit Template -> Create Copy (Just choose the defaults for the save dialogue)

3. Click on the "states" tab: (You'll see a list of all the different visual states the button can have)

4. Select the "Pressed" state and edit away to your heats content, visually.

And you're done!

Compare that to trying to edit the raw XAML, as you would have to in VS.