Microsoft Infopath Tutorial and Online Training Course

Microsoft InfoPath Tutorial: Section 3 Overview

In this section, you will learn about:

• Completing a form in InfoPath
• Saving a form
• Exporting form data to Excel
• Exporting form data to the web
• Editing posted data
• Sharing forms through Outlook

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:

To turn on AutoComplete for a form in which the feature is enabled:

1. Open the Tools menu and select Options.
2. In the Options dialog, make sure the General tab is selected.

1. Under System options, click the Internet Options button.
2. In the Internet Properties dialog, select the Content tab.

1. Under Personal information, click the AutoComplete button.
2. In the AutoComplete Settings dialog, under Use AutoComplete for, select the Forms check box.

1. Click OK.
2. Click OK to close the Internet Properties dialog.
3. Click OK to close the Options dialog.

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.

Exporting Form Data to Excel

If you’re using the 2003 version of InfoPath, you can export form data to Microsoft Excel using the Export to Excel Wizard:

1. Open the form containing the data you want to export.
2. You can only export to Excel from the current view. To switch to the view you need, select it from the Views menu.
3. From the File menu, select Export To, and then Microsoft Excel from the submenu.

The Export to Excel Wizard opens:

1. Click Next.
2. Select the type of data you want to export. You can export only the form fields, or the form fields as well as selected tables or lists.

1. Click Next.
2. Use the check boxes to select the data you want to export:

1. Click Next.
2. At this point, you can choose to add more forms to export:

To add another form, select the second option. Then click the Add button and navigate to the form.

1. When you’ve finished, click Finish.

A Microsoft Excel window opens displaying the form data in a worksheet.

Exporting Form Data to the Web

InfoPath’s Export to Web feature lets you save a form as a Web page with the extension .MHT or .MHTML. The MHTML extension refers to the Single File Web Page format, which means that all the graphics and other supporting elements of the form are preserved. Users can open your form using a Web browser, but they can’t edit the data.

To export a form to the Web:

1. Open the form containing the data you want to export.
2. You can only export to Excel from the current view. To switch to the view you need, select it from the Views menu.
3. From the File menu, select Export To, and then Web from the submenu.

The Export to Web dialog opens:

1. Navigate to a location where you want to save the file.
2. Enter a file name.
3. Click Export.