Style or ContolTheme, which one to use?

[ds1709]

I have an application, where I want to override default style of some control, e.g., I want all my menu items to have less vertical padding.
So, there's to ways to do this:

<Application>
    <Application.Resources>
        <ControlTheme x:Key="{x:Type MenuItem}" TargetType="{x:Type MenuItem}" BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type MenuItem}}">
            <Setter Property="Padding" Value="11 4" />
        </ControlTheme>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

or

<Application>
    <Application.Styles>
        <Style Selector="MenuItem">
            <Setter Property="Padding" Value="11 4" />
        </Style>
    </Application.Styles>
</Application>

Which one is the most prefered?

[LaurentInSeattle]

Hi,
If you have some WPF experience, ControlTheme should be your preference.
If you are more into CSS, use Styles.

As far as I can tell, you can do everything using both methods.
Your code, your choice... :)

[timunie]

Main difference is that style cannot be overriden completely as it has no BasedOn option, unlike ControlTheme. I prefer Styles for tiny adjustments and ControlTheme when I want to style a lot or doing it in a Controls Library.

[maxkatz6]

If you task is to create a custom control look, replacing existing one - use ControlTheme.
If your task is to adjust styling a little bit with setters - use Style.

[ds1709]

I discovered (for myself) one important point to chose between ControlTheme and Style. If you want to customize some contol for entire application, it's better to use ControlTheme rather than Style. The reason is that Style always overrides ControlTheme values. It may become a problem if you are customizing ItemsControls containers, like ListBoxItem and so on.

For example, if you have global (application level) Style for ListBoxItem

<Style Selector="ListBoxItem">
    <Setter Property="Padding" Value="20 5" />
</Style>

and then somwhere in application create a ListBox with custom ItemContainetTheme like this

<ListBox>
    <ListBox.ItemContainerTheme>
        <ControlTheme TargetType="{x:Type ListBoxItem}" BasedOn={StaticResource {x:Type ListBoxItem}}>
            <Setter Property="Padding" Value="0" />
        <ControlTheme />
    </ListBox.ItemContainerTheme>
</ListBox>

the Padding property will be 20,5 as defined in Style, and you have to define Style to override it.
But if you override base theme for ListBoxItem on application level (like this)

<ControlTheme x:Key="{x:Type ListBoxItem}" TargetType="{x:Type ListBoxItem}" BasedOn={StaticResource {x:Type ListBoxItem}}>
    <Setter Property="Padding" Value="20 5" />
</ControlTheme>

all works as expected.
So, for me from now the main point to keep in mind to chose between Style and ControlTheme is theirs priority.