NetAdvantage 2006.3 was released earlier this month with great new features for those of us in the design community. Specifically, we’ve added some really nice touches to AppStylist, mostly revolving around resources. Resource previews are now everywhere resources are used; resources can be selectively imported and exported from library to library, which makes reuse across ISLs much more accessible. The color dialog has been updated to support an eyedropper tool and we’ve also added a Ribbon preview canvas.

We’re already working on updates for the next release, but I’ll have to wait a while longer before I share. Really cool stuff though!

 I was recently demoing AppStyling to existing customers who had yet to use the technology. They were amazed. They were smiling and nodding their heads in approval as I demoed skinning the live running app using AppStylist Runtime support. When you work with this stuff it’s easy to forget how cool it is.

 Check out NetAdvantage AppStylist and the AppStylist New Features page.

I read about these at the first of the month and never posted links. So, for those of you unaware of the recent XP themes that have been released, check these out:

• Royale Noir
• Official Zune Theme

I learned of these via Robby Ingebretsen. Here’s a direct link to the article.

I watched a video preview for this either on Channel9 (http://channel9.msdn.com) or YouTube, I can’t remember now. If I find the link I’ll post it. When you watch the video, you just assume it’s one of those technologies you won’t see for a while, or will never see. Something crazy tucked away in a lab somewhere… well, there’s now a sample online that you can play with, and I must say it’s pretty amazing. I’ll reserve my final judgement for the release that lets me upload my own photos. Until then, check out the Photosynth preview: http://labs.live.com/photosynth.

A minor update of the Fireworks to XAML Exporter has been posted on the Infragistics Visual Design Group site. This post addresses a gradient conversion issue that occurred under certain circumstances.

Fireworks gradient fills consist of a collection of color nodes and a collection of opacity nodes. Because an object can also have an opacity mask applied separately from the collection of opacity nodes, I am merging the opacity nodes with the color nodes into a single GradientStopCollection. Each gradient stop is of the format #AARRGGBB, which results in the same effect. This allows me to apply a separate opacity mask and maintain the Fireworks visual. This issue occurred during the node merge process.

I’ve posted the lastest version of the Fireworks to XAML Exporter on the Infragistics Visual Design Group site. Lots of significant changes are included in this release. You’ve asked for the ability to save directly to a xaml file, it’s there. You’ve asked for image support – included. Lots of other quality improvements have been included as well, so the translation should be much more accurate now. Keep those comments and suggestions rolling in and watch for updates in the future.