Rockin' on down the InfoPath
I've been spending some quality time with InfoPath lately, trying to soak up as much as I can about it while preparing a demo for the SharePoint 1, 2, 3! training event on Monday. Now, InfoPath is, to me anyway, a completely new and unfamiliar Microsoft Office product. I'd never used it before and I wasn't even sure what it did beyond the abstract, "it helps you fill out forms". Now that I've been spending some time with it, let me clue the rest of you in: InfoPath might just be the best program in the Office suite besides Outlook! I'll be honest - I might be overly excited b/c it's so new to me, but there are some SERIOUSLY sweet features built into InfoPath.
InfoPath allows you, the business user (not the developer) to create a form designed to receive and store all kinds of data. You can add text fields, drop down lists, rich text boxes, etc. You can enforce data validation rules on these fields, ensuring that important fields are not left blank and other match the patterns you are looking for (phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc). You can tie the form to external data stored in a database, SharePoint, or web services. You can have 200 people fill out 3 forms each, then merge all the data together into a single master copy in Excel. You build ActiveX controls right inside of the InfoPath application (using C++). You can add Javascript, you can make the form look pretty, you can ask it to dinner and a movie... Ok, maybe not that last bit. Still, I'm pretty taken by InfoPath. I bet the reason people don't use it more than they currently do is because they're more comfortable with Excel and just don't know how InfoPath fits in. I'm hoping to change that up some by talking about it every now and then. I'm going to see if it fits in with any of the work we're doing here in my office. This is too sweet a tool to leave in the toolbox.
-- Matt Ranlett