Microsoft Office "12" InfoPath can be used to both design and fill out electronic business forms. It is well integrated with other Microsoft Office "12" programs and with servers, to improve the way you collect, organize and manage data.

User Interface

Unlike other applications of the Office "12" Suite the User Interface of InfoPath follows the traditional form. It is none-the-less rich in features and functions.




Forms

These include filling out forms, designing your form template, developing your form template, publishing your form template and maintaining your form template. Some of these applications of the program will be discussed in more detail.

Forms for e-mail

InfoPath "12" is designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft Office "12" Outlook. If you publish a form template to a list of e-mail recipients, users can perform a variety of form-related tasks within Outlook "12":

*Fill out and submit data: Users can open, fill out, and submit InfoPath e-mail forms in the body of an e-mail message. They can also reply to or forward the form, just as they can with any other e-mail message.

*Store data in folders: You can use a new type of e-mail folder, called an InfoPath form folder, to store collections of related InfoPath "12" forms. For example, if you publish a survey form to a list of e-mail recipients, you can store completed surveys in a form folder in your Inbox. You can also choose to show data from each form in columns in the folder. This allows you to quickly group, filter, and sort data from multiple forms.

*Merge data: You can consolidate data from many e-mail forms into one form. This is useful when you want to compare information in several forms or summarize information from several forms into a single form.

*Export data: If you want to perform a detailed analysis of form data, you can export it to Microsoft Office "12" Excel.

Forms for the Web

In Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, users had to have InfoPath installed on their computers to fill out an InfoPath form. Now, you can use InfoPath "12" in conjunction with Microsoft Office "12" Forms Services, to design and publish Web-enabled form templates (Web-enabled form template: A form template that has been converted to run on a server running Office Forms Services.). Users can fill out these forms in a supported Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, or Firefox.

For example, you might decide to design a survey form for your corporate Web site so that customers can send you feedback about the services you provide. Because it's unlikely that external customers have InfoPath "12" installed on their computers, you can design the survey as a Web-enabled form template that can be filled out in a browser. Office "12" Forms Services also provides a central location to store and manage form templates for an organization.

Forms for mobile devices

By using InfoPath "12" together with Office "12" Forms Services, you can design a Web-enabled form template that runs on a mobile device. You can design a view specifically for display on a small screen and use rules (rule: A condition or action, or a set of conditions or actions, that automatically performs tasks based on events and values in the form.) to automatically display that view when a user opens the form on a mobile device.

Hosted forms

You can design and develop custom applications that include InfoPath user interface elements and features. For example, an insurance company might host InfoPath as an ActiveX or Windows Forms control inside a custom application for submitting insurance claims. Or, if you have access to a server running Office "12" Forms Services, you can host InfoPath as an ASP.NET form control on a Web page.


Template Design

Design Task panes simplify the process of Template creation.

Reusable template parts

Custom template parts to achieve a standardized, consistent design for a collection of form templates including header blocks, signature blocks, or address blocks can be created. A designed template part can be reused and can include business logic, rules and data validation. It can also be shared with other form designers and updated as necessary.

New and improved controls

InfoPath "12" includes new controls and improves the way existing controls work. The following list describes some of these improvements and additions:

*Combo box control: Combines an edit control with a list box. This allows users to type an entry or choose one from the list.

*Multiple-selection list box: Allows users to select more than one item in a list of check boxes.

*Horizontal region: Enables you to place two areas side-by-side in your form template. When a form is resized, the horizontal region grows or shrinks to fill the available space.

*Horizontal repeating tables: Users to add as many columns as needed when filling out a form.

*Enhancements to existing controls: In addition to providing more controls, InfoPath "12" improves the way you work with existing controls. Among other things, you can specify auto-advance options for text boxes, allow linked images in rich text boxes, use additional date and time functions, and define input scopes to improve handwriting or speech recognition in form controls.


Advanced Template Design

You don't need programming expertise to design an effective form template. However, if the needs of your business require you to write code, you can take advantage of some of these new features for developers:

InfoPath inside Visual Studio

By using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System (VSTO 2005), you can work directly in InfoPath "12" design mode from the Visual Studio designer.



Visual Studio inside InfoPath

In InfoPath "12" design mode, you can quickly add managed code to your form template by opening Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA). VSTA is the managed-code complement to Microsoft Script Editor (MSE), which you can continue to use for writing script.

Updated object model

The InfoPath "12" object model enables you to write code for both InfoPath form templates and Web-enabled form templates. You save valuable development time by writing and compiling the code once, and then having it run effectively in both InfoPath and on a server running Office "12" Forms Services. The object model also includes improved support for managed code.

Support for COM add-ins and programmable task panes

You can load or unload a Component Object Model (COM) add-in, which is a supplemental program that adds custom commands or specialized features to InfoPath "12". Support for programmable task panes, which allow you to deliver relevant information and instructions in a task pane that appears inside InfoPath "12" is available.


Publishing a Form Template

A key part of the form design process involves distributing your form template to your users, typically through the Publishing Wizard. In InfoPath "12", you can publish form templates to more locations, including servers running Office "12" Forms Services or Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services "3.0".

A wizard interface simplifies this task significantly. These are the publishing options one can publish in from the Publishing Wizard:

*To a network location: Publish a form template to a shared folder on your computer or on a network.

*To a SharePoint server or Office "12" Forms Services site: Use this option when you want to publish a Web-enabled form template to a server running Office "12" Forms Services, or when you want to publish a form template to a document library or as a site content type on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services "3.0".

*To a list of e-mail recipients: By publishing a form template to a list of e-mail recipients, you enable users to open, fill out, and submit InfoPath e-mail forms in the body of an e-mail message.

*As a custom installed form template: To deploy custom installed form templates with JScript (.js) or Microsoft Windows Installer (.msi) setup files.

In-house

Much of the information used in this review and more, is available from theHelp function within the application.

Also see:
Office "12" PROview: MS Access

Office "12" PROview: MS Word

Office "12" PROview: MS Excel