What is InfoPath?

·        Infopath is a simple but effective application designed to allow non-developers to create XML forms for use in a shared workspace.

·        InfoPath provides information workers with a set of tools that enable the creation of dynamic forms to gather and share information

·        InfoPath provides a high degree of information-gathering flexibility, enabling people to obtain the information they need in a timely fashion and to make well-informed decisions.

·        InfoPath provides a robust, flexible, easy-to-use design environment that enables the creation of dynamic forms that information workers can use to gather information.

·        The information gathered through InfoPath is easy to reuse in all of the company’s business processes.

·        Information gathered through InfoPath can be stored directly in a database, on a Web server or file share, or on a server running WSS.

·        InfoPath enables a user to work with forms offline

Explanation about InfoPath in Detail:

a.     How to use Microsoft’s Infopath?

b.     How to create and Share Infopath forms?

The following are the topics I am going to explain you now for the above questions!

Section 1: The Infopath Interface

Section 2: Creating Forms

Section 3: Customizing Form Layouts

Section 4: Using InfoPath

Section 5: Distributing Forms

           

SECTION 1: THE INFOPATH INTERFACE:

 In this section, you will learn about:

·         Exploring the InfoPath application interface

·         Customizing toolbars

Exploring the Infopath Application Interface:

·         InfoPath boasts a relatively simple interface, which makes it extremely easy to use.

·         As with all Microsoft applications, there’s a standard menu bar and toolbars along the top of the window, a main area for working with forms, and a task pane on the right side of the window.

·         There are only two toolbars that you’ll frequently use: the Standard toolbar and the Formatting toolbar.

·         The Standard toolbar contains shortcuts to commands for working with your form files, including New, Open, Save, and Print, as well as Cut, Copy, and Paste

·         The Formatting toolbar contains shortcuts to commands for formatting the elements of your form, with menus and buttons for changing the font, size, attributes, and alignment, as well as inserting bulleted and numbered lists.

·         The majority of commands you’ll use, especially when designing form templates, are available from various task panes. To show the task pane, open the View menu and select Task Pane.

·         All the available task panes are listed in a menu that you can access from the task pane’s title bCustomizing toolbars:

You can customize the InfoPath toolbars to display the commands you frequently use and hide those you don’t use:

1.       Display the toolbar you want to customize by opening the View menu and selecting it from the Toolbars submenu.

2.       Open the Tools menu and select Customize.

3.       In the Customize dialog, make sure the Commands tab is selected:

1.     Select the category that contains the command you want to add.

2.       From the Commands list, click and drag a command onto the toolbar where you want the command to appear:

 

When you release the mouse button, the command is inserted into the toolbar:  finally click Close to close the Customize dialog.

Section 2: Creating Forms:

                Creating a New Form from a Template

InfoPath includes a number of pre-designed forms that you can modify to create your own form templates. Sample forms are a good place to start, since many of them include not only professional formatting but also a number of scripts and formulas for performing calculations in the fields.

            To modify a sample form:

            From the File menu, select Design a Form. This opens the Design a Form task pane on the right side of the InfoPath window:

1. Under Design a new form, click Customize a Sample.
2. In the Customize a Sample dialog, select a sample form to open.

1.       Click OK. The form opens in design mode, allowing you to modify it

Create a New Form from a Blank Page

To create a form from scratch:

1. From the File menu, select Design a Form. If the task pane is open, you can also select Design a Form from the task pane menu.

The Design a Form task pane opens.

                                  

1. Under Design a new form, click New Blank Form.

This opens a blank form in design mode—note that (Design) appears in the title bar. The Design Tasks task pane also opens on the right side of the window. Use the task pane to guide you through the process of laying out your form, adding controls, work with the data source, creating views, and publishing your form.

Laying Out a Form

The first task in designing a form from scratch is to create the layout. It’s best to do this using layout tables, which control the size and placement of the elements you’ll add, such as text and controls.

To get started, click Layout on the Design Tasks task pane. This opens the Layout task pane:

Using the task pane, lay out your form by adding the tables you’ll need:

1.     First, consider all the information you want to collect from the form. How should it be organized? How many different sections will you need? You should plan to add a layout table for each section.

If you plan for some of the sections to be optional, or you want users to be able to insert more sections or table rows as needed, leave these out for now; these require repeating or optional sections, which we’ll cover later.

1. On the Layout task pane, scroll through the table designs shown in the Insert layout tables list. To add a table, click on it in the list.

The table is added to the form:

1. Add more tables as necessary to accommodate the sections you need. To add space between the tables, position the cursor outside a table and press Enter.
2. To add a custom table, click Custom Table.
3. In the Insert Table dialog, enter the number of columns and rows you want the table to have and click OK.

The new table is inserted into the form:

To add text to the form, click inside a table cell where you want the text to appear, and then begin typing.

Adding Controls to the Form

Controls are the objects that add functionality to your form, such as text boxes, list boxes, and buttons, among many other choices available in InfoPath. Once you’ve added your layout tables, add controls to your form using the Controls task pane:

1. On the Layout task pane, click Controls. This option is also available on the Design Tasks task pane.

The Controls task pane opens, displaying a list of the controls you can add to your form:

2. For each control you want to add, position your cursor in the cell in the layout table where you want the control, and then click the control in the list. The control appears on the form.

3.       Once you’ve added your controls, your form might look something like this:

Testing a Form

Use the Preview Form button on the Standard toolbar to preview and test your form as you design it:

Clicking Preview Form opens a new window containing the form as it will appear and behave to end users. This means you can enter and view data, submit the data to a database or Web service, and test the general functionality of the form.

To return to the design window, click Close Form on the Standard toolbar.

Saving a Form Template

To save a form you’re designing:

1.     Open the File menu and select Save, or click the Save button on the Standard toolbar.

2.     In the dialog that appears, click Save.

1.     In the Save As dialog, navigate to the location where you want to save the form template.

1.     To give the template a title identifiable to users, click the Change Name button and enter a new title.

2.     Enter a file name for the form.

3.     Click Save.

The form is saved as a template with the .XSN file extension.

Deleting a Form

To delete a form you don’t need, navigate to the form file in Windows Explorer, select it, and press Delete on your keyboard. To delete a form from InfoPath, you can use the Open dialog:

1.     On the Standard toolbar, click the Open button.

2.     In the Open dialog, navigate the location of the form you want to delete.

3.     Right-click on the form and select Delete from the shortcut menu:

 Printing a Form

To print a form, click the Print button on the Standard toolbar. This sends the form immediately to the printer. To define print options using the Print dialog, open the File menu and select Print.

3. Customizing Form Layout

Formatting a Form

Several options are available for quickly defining a form’s formatting. Some of these are specific to the view you’re designing, while others apply to all the views.

Use the View Properties dialog to define default formatting properties of the current view, such as the background color, layout width, and formatting:

1.     From the View menu, select Manage Views.

This opens the Views task pane, where you can select the view you want to work with:

1.     Select a view from the list click the View Properties button at the bottom of the task pane.

The View Properties dialog opens.

1.     Use the General tab to specify a background color and layout width for the form in this view.

2.     You can also use this tab to specify this view as the default, if it isn’t already, and to specify whether or not you want the view to appear in the InfoPath View menu.

3.     Use the Text Settings tab to specify formatting for the controls. Each view can use different formatting. This is handy if, for example, some users need larger text.

1.     When you’ve finished, click OK.

Color schemes apply to all the form’s views. When you apply a color scheme to a form, InfoPath uses custom table formatting, including borders and shading, and heading styles when you insert these elements into the form. To apply a color scheme:

1.     From the Format menu, or from the task pane menu, select Color Schemes.

This opens the Color Schemes task pane, which displays a list of various color schemes you can select:

Click on a color scheme to apply it to the form.

Customizing Tables

The InfoPath Table menu contains the same commands for customizing tables that are available in other Microsoft Office products—such as Insert, Delete, and Merge Cells. These commands are also available from the shortcut menu when you right-click on a table.

In addition, the Layout task pane contains common commands for modifying tables (if necessary, select Layout from the task pane menu):

Add Table Row adds a row at the bottom of the table, while Add Table Column adds a column to the right of the table. Use the Split and Merge commands to divide and combine cells.

To resize columns or rows in a table, click and drag the borders:

If you make a mistake, it’s easy to delete a table. Position your cursor inside the table you want to delete, then click on the table handle that appears at the upper left corner.

This selects the table:

Press Delete to delete it.

Section 4: Using InfoPath

Completing a Form

You use the Fill Out a Form task pane to open and fill out forms that have already been designed: From the File menu, select Fill Out a Form. The Fill Out a Form task pane opens on the right side of the InfoPath window:

Forms you’ve recently opened are listed under Fill out a form. Beneath these, you can click More Forms to select from InfoPath’s sample forms. These include timesheets, invoices, performance evaluations, travel itineraries, and more.

To open a form saved on your computer or a shared network location:

1.        Under Open a form, click On My Computer.

2.       In the Open dialog, navigate to the directory, drive, or network location that contains the form.

1.     Click OK.

The form opens in the InfoPath main window:

Until it’s saved, the form appears in the Windows task bar as “Form X,” with X being a number. The form is an .XML file based on the template (.XSN file) you selected. When you save the form, you’ll be saving the .XML file, which will contain your entries to the form—this is very similar to opening a new, blank document in Microsoft Word based on either the default template or another template.

You can open saved forms (.XML files) for editing using the same method.

In the new form, use your mouse to click inside each field, or move from field to field using the Tab key on your keyboard. As you stop inside a field, InfoPath highlights the field with a blue border:

Enter your text, or click the date picker buttons, check boxes or option buttons to indicate your choices.

If InfoPath’s AutoComplete feature is enabled for a form, InfoPath can suggest matches to the first few characters you type in each field based on your previous entries:

Saving a Form

To save your completed form:

1.     Open the File menu and select Save, or click the Save button on the Standard toolbar.

2.     In the Save As dialog, navigate to the location where you want to save the form.

1.     Enter a file name for the form.

2.     Click Save.

Section 5: Distributing Forms

Publishing a Form Template

In order to make a form template available to users who need to fill out the form, you must publish it to a shared location, such as a network folder, a Microsoft SharePoint Portal, or a Web server. Keep in mind, however, that users must still have InfoPath installed on their computers in order to fill out the form.

To publish a form: From the File menu, select Publish.

The Publishing Wizard opens:

1.     Click Next.

2.     Select where you want to publish the form:

1.     Click Next.

2.     On the next screen, the wizard prompts you to enter a location and a name for the form. The fields vary depending on the type of location you selected. For example, the screen below shows the fields you complete when publishing a form to a shared folder:

When publishing to a SharePoint Portal, the wizard asks you to either create a new library or modify an existing one. Complete the steps as necessary to define the location of the published form and to give it a name.

On the last screen of the wizard, confirm the location and click Finish.

Once you publish a form, there’s no need to republish it, even if you make changes. You can simply resave the form using the Save button, since the location is already stored.