July, 2009

Check out some of the new InfoPath 2010 features in action in the following videos on youtube:

InfoPath 2010 Richer Browser Forms

InfoPath 2010 Picture Button

InfoPath 2010 Oneclick Publishing

Here's a quick overview of some of the great new features in InfoPath 2010. Stay tuned for upcoming posts with more details!

Microsoft InfoPath 2010 makes it easier than ever to design electronic forms. InfoPath now includes the Office Fluent UI and allows the creation of powerful, interactive forms, without having to write any code. With a few clicks, Office users can customize SharePoint list forms, add custom layouts and rules to validate the data, and take them offline in SharePoint Workspace.

IT professionals can create custom forms for document workflows and Office Business Applications that include managed code, digital signatures and that connect to line of business data.

In InfoPath 2010, we’ve made some big investments to make it much easier to build rich forms-based applications on top of the SharePoint Server 2010 platform.

Quickly Design Forms with Easy-to-Use Tools
New features to help you quickly and easily create forms include our new Fluent UI, pre-built layout sections, out-of-the-box rules, improved rules management, and varied styles. 

The New tab in the Designer Backstage presents you with the available form templates that you can choose from. Most templates start you off with a default layout table.

Stay tuned for more details on our new and improved form design features!

Layout your Forms Using Pre-built Page and Section Layouts
Laying out your form and making it look more attractive is now easier than ever. Insert one of our pre-built page layouts to give your form structure. Then, insert some section layouts into the page layout to start building your form.

Page and Section Layouts in InfoPath Designer:

New and Improved Controls
We’ve added some new controls and narrowed the feature gap between client and browser forms, ensuring a more consistent form filling experience for all our users.

New controls in InfoPath 2010 include:

• Picture buttons – Instead of the default gray button, use any image as a button in your form.
• Hyperlink capabilities –Allow users to insert their own hyperlinks when filling out forms.
• Date and time picker – Allow users to insert dates and times in their forms
• Person/Group pickers – Updated! This is now a first class control and is included by default in the Controls gallery.
• Signature Line (Editor Only) – Allow users to digitally sign a  form
  

Controls and functionality that are now supported in browser forms include:  

• Bulleted, numbered, and plain lists, multiple selection list boxes, Combo boxes, Choice group and sections, and Filtering functionality.

Add Rules to your Forms
With our new out-of-the-box rules (or quick rules) and improved rules management UI, you can easily add rules to validate data, format your form, or perform other actions with just a couple of clicks, and without any code.

Quick Rules in InfoPath Designer:

Publish Forms Quickly
Our new “quick” publish functionality allows you to publish forms in a single click (no more clicking through the Publishing Wizard every time you want to make an update to your forms!)
 

Create Forms for SharePoint Lists
Using InfoPath, you can now extend and enhance the forms used for creating, editing and viewing items in a SharePoint list. In a browser, simply navigate to a SharePoint list, and on the SharePoint Ribbon under List Tools, choose the Customize Form option. This will automatically generate a form which looks very similar to the default out-of-the-box SharePoint list form.

You can then customize and enhance this form by modifying the layout, creating additional views or pages, and adding rules to validate your data, show or hide sections of the form or set a fields value (to name just a few of the options).

Example of Customized SharePoint List Form:

 
Stay tuned for more details on SharePoint List Customization!

We recommend using a form associated with a SharePoint list when possible. This provides the most straightforward design and form management experience. However, there are more complex scenarios where using a form associated with a form library is preferred e.g. if your form has a complex schema or if you need to add code to your form. 

Create SharePoint Applications
With InfoPath 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and SharePoint Designer 2010, you can easily create powerful team, departmental or enterprise applications on top of SharePoint Server.

• Form-based applications: InfoPath forms can be integrated with components such as workflow, reporting, and custom Web pages to create rich form-based applications.  
• Document Workflows: InfoPath can be used to design custom workflow initiation and task forms that drive document management processes.
• Business Connectivity Services: Integrating with BCS, it is straightforward to design InfoPath forms that create, read, update, and delete business data from a back-end system. 

Stay tuned for more details on creating SharePoint applications!

Create Mashups using the InfoPath Form Web Part
Now, without writing a single line of code, you can host your InfoPath browser forms in Web pages by simply adding the InfoPath Form Web Part to a Web Part page. You can also connect it to other Web Parts on the page to send or receive data.

Stay tuned for more details on the InfoPath Form Web Part!

Build Forms with Code
Using Visual Studio Tools for Applications, you can add managed code to your forms.

Stay tuned for more details on programming with InfoPath! 

InfoPath Editor
The InfoPath 2010 Editor Fluent user interface provides a much improved, simpler user experience for filling out forms.

Form opened in InfoPath 2010 Editor:

 
SharePoint Workspace
InfoPath 2010 is the forms technology used by SharePoint Workspace 2010 for creating and filling out forms.

InfoPath Forms Services Administration and Management
We have invested in many improvements to make it easier to manage your InfoPath Forms Services as a component of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

We hope you enjoy using InfoPath 2010 and look forward to getting your feedback!

The InfoPath Team

We on the InfoPath team are delighted to announce the release of Microsoft InfoPath 2010 (Technical Preview). We’re really excited to share all of our great new features with you!

(Click the thumbnails for higher-resolution images.)

Highlights

• Use InfoPath to customize SharePoint list forms
• Design forms more quickly and easily with page and section layouts, themes, and Fluent user interface.
• Add smarts to your forms with pre-built rules
• Publish your forms with one-click

Where do I sign up?
The Office 2010 Technical Preview is a limited-availability release.  To sign up to be considered for the Office 2010 Technical Preview program:

• Log on to Microsoft Connect with your Windows Live ID, using the following link: 
•  http://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=3343&SiteID=160&InvitationID=Beta-PRJM-HVCM 
• Complete the registration form for Microsoft Connect
• Read and complete the Technical Beta Nomination Form
• When the forms asks “Which Microsoft Office Application are you most interested in testing?”, choose InfoPath.

How do I win the Xbox? 

• Build a real-world end to end application using InfoPath 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.
• Download the Community Clips Recorder from http://communityclips.officelabs.com/ 
• Record a walkthrough of your solution, showing us how you used InfoPath forms and other Office technologies (5 minutes maximum)
• Submit the finished video to us

Contest is limited to eligible members of the InfoPath 2010 Technical Preview program referenced above, and additional limitations may apply.  All submissions will be reviewed by the InfoPath team, and prizes will be awarded in several categories, including best overall solution, best video, and best bug.  Contest details will be posted on the technical preview site at http://connect.microsoft.com.

We will post more details on our new features in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!