InfoPath Dev

I'm not sure what words to use to describe what I'm trying to do, which in turn means I don't know what keywords to use to search for information. I've searched for information on templates but that only addresses the first half of what I'm trying to do.  So I'll tell you what I'm trying to do and maybe you can point me in the right direction.

I work for an ISP, and in order to conform to best practices we have to create a long document that contains the instructions required to configure the customer's connections accross multiple devices. The document contains the configuration steps as well as pre- and post- configuration commands to confirm that we're not overwriting an existing customer and verify that the connection was configured as intended. Based on the requirements I created some very long Excel templates that have about 10-20 input fields and the spreadsheet then uses those to fill out about 20 pages of documentation.

For example, these variables:

xxVCID1xx       
xxGROUPxx
Gix/xx       
CIT-xxx-001
xxVLANxx
xx.xx.xx.x2

... would be used to create this:

show l2vpn xconnect | inc xxVCID1xx

Expected output:

xxGROUPxx   Gix/xx
                      UP   CIT-xxx-001.xxVLANxx        UP   xx.xx.xx.x2     xxVCID1xx   UP

This is a huge time-saver compared to the old method (reusing previous documents and find/replace to change the variables) - and it eliminates a LOT of user error - but there are certain minor formatting restrictions that upper management is asking us to work around. We're hoping that InfoPath will enable us to do what we need to do in Word where we can do more with formatting styles.

Questions:

1.) Is this possible within InfoPath / Microsoft Word?

2.) If possible to create, will it be possible for a user to highlight & copy text out of the document (to be pasted into the devices that need to be configured). A coworker sent me a test document he'd created but it's impossible to highlight/copy any of the text except what's in the user-accessable fields.

3.) If both 1 & 2 are "Yes", then how do I do this with InfoPath?

1. If I'm understanding this correctly, then yes it should be possible in Infopath. You basically have a bunch of fields, and those fields are used to generate some documentation? I am doing something nearly identical to this right now and there are definitely some things to be aware of. Namely formatting.

2. Yes, it's just text so anyone can copy/paste it.

My one question is: What are your formatting restrictions? Formatting is really the only issue I keep running into working on my project.

Well, there are two things we have in mind.

First, Excel cannot do multiple formats within the same cell.  Say I have a cell that has the text “I want to bold only the word *variable* in this cell” where *variable* is a value pulled from another cell. It would not be possible to bold only that word. Either you bold the entire cell or you don’t.

Second, we want to move to a cherry-picking tool to save us the labor of having to update multiple templates that may contain redundant information. Say we have 3 services that require 3 devices to be configured, each of which may need to be configured one of two ways depending on the service offered.  With Excel we’d need 8 templates with a total of 24 configuration sections that would need to be updated if our processes are changed by management. With a cherry-picking tool we would only need 6 configuration possibilities and have the tool arrange them in the order we ask.

I was able to get this second item to work in Excel but Excel doesn’t adjust the page size in relation to what items are picked. So if the first device’s first configuration option is 5 lines long and the second option is 20 lines long I have to leave 20 lines open just in case the second option is picked. If the first option is picked there’d be 15 blank lines in the final document. From the demo video of InfoPath I’ve seen it looks like it can do what I’m being asked to build.

As for the first part, you should be able to use rich text boxes in Infopath to be able to bold single words and what not. As long as you don't have way too many of them on a form, performace shouldn't take a hit.

Part 2: This should be no problem at all in infopath. You can show/hide sections based on certain options selected in a control such as a dropdown.

If you have any other questions, just ask!

 Yes, but I need to know HOW to do it.  I know how to insert a box for a user to enter text, but how do I tell Info Path to reference that field?

Just copy/paste that box somewhere else and make it read-only, so anything you enter in the first one will appear in the second one. Check out some tutorials online to get you started on with the basic stuff.

That didn't work for me but I did check out some tutorials online and found out how to reference other fields that have been filled in.  Unfortunately I still cannot highlight any text other than the user-accessable fields, so it's impossible to copy & paste the text.  What I need is for the filled out form to be saved to a Word File - even an HTML file would work, as long as all the text can be copied & pasted, but the only Save As option that it'll give is to save as an InfoPath form.

 EDIT: I found how to export the form to a web file, so that's taken care of.  Looks like the only thing I have left is a formatting issue, but I'll post a separate thread for that.  Thanks.