I'm using a Flip Template for my tiles. On the MSDN page the text is seen to wrap, as well as be a smaller size.
This is not representative of behaviour I'm seeing in my live tiles. I can get a maximum of 3 lines, of large text, on the Wide live tile. The text does not wrap. This happens on all the different screen sizes of emulators. Frustratingly, I can get 4 lines of text on the Medium live tile, but the additional line of content is too long to fit there anyway so I don't include it.
I update my tiles periodically using a scheduled task:
Earthquake latest = quakes.First();
newTileData = new FlipTileData
{
Title = String.Format(AppResources.LiveTileTitleFormat, quakes.Count),
BackTitle = String.Format(AppResources.LiveTileTitleFormat, quakes.Count),
BackContent = String.Format(AppResources.LiveTileBackContentFormat, latest.FormattedMagnitude, latest.FormattedDepth),
WideBackContent = String.Format(AppResources.LiveTileWideBackContentFormat, latest.FormattedMagnitude, latest.FormattedDepth, latest.RelativeLocation)
};
ShellTile tileToFind = ShellTile.ActiveTiles.First();
if (tileToFind != null)
{
tileToFind.Update(newTileData);
}
The emulator on the left is attempting to show 4 lines. The emulator on the right is showing the text not wrapping.
So, is there any way to force a fourth line, or specify a smaller font size, or both? I suspect there isn't, and the MSDN article is simply showing Windows 8 (not WP8) live tiles.
It's not possible to resize text on WP8 tiles. You can fake it by creating an image and placing that on the tile instead:
use this image for implementing tile generation.
private WriteableBitmap RenderControlAsImage(UserControl element)
{
element.UpdateLayout();
element.Measure(new Size(element.Width, element.Height));
element.Arrange(new Rect(0, 0, element.Width, element.Height));
return new WriteableBitmap(element, null);
}