InfoPath – What can it do for you – part 2

In this part of the series I want to talk about one of the new features of InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint 2010:

One of the problems with InfoPath 2007 and MOSS 2007 was the absence of an easy, and user friendly, solution to present your digital forms. For this article I will use the digital form I used for my TechReady session.

You can add the webpart by editing the page, go to Insert, Web Part and Forms category.  The webpart has a couple of options:

List or Library
You can select the list or library that contains an InfoPath form. The cool thing is that you can change the forms of SharePoint lists with InfoPath and display the form here.

Content type
You can choose the InfoPath form. The forms are saved as content types and a list or library can contain multiple content types.

Show InfoPath ribbon or toolbar
You can decide if your users can use the ribbon or the InfoPath toolbar to submit forms. I always disable this feature when my InfoPath form contains a button with the connected submit action.

Views
You can choose the view you want to display to your users. This only works when you actually use multiple views in your form.

Submit behavior
This is an important option. You can choose the behavior of the form after the user executes the submit action. Leave the form open or open a new one? It’s up to you.

Title
The webpart comes with a standard name. It is wise to change this to a more descriptive title 🙂

You are now able to present your InfoPath forms in an easy and user friendly way to your users!