InfoPath Dev

A week ago (7 days ago from this post) I was given a task to build a form and was told that InfoPath would be a great program to use. Honestly I had never even heard of it so I started from scratch...

A week later I have the form, I have published it, and it works great but...

When you go to the Preview Form there is one line of text and the bottom line which only has a submit button on it that are not centered. I read about going into Button Propoerties and Size and then just saving it, but it doesn't work. This sounds like such a minor thing but other people see it they get upset. If I am around I can explain that is is only a preview but it looks bad.

The second thing...

 Is there a way to change the view, like zooming in or out to see the paper? I didn't find anything about this

and last...

Did I need to build an Access DB before the form? I am trying to figure it out but am not getting anywhere.

I am very excited to learn programs (and it lookes good on a resume!!) I just need help.

 Thanks for your help! 

 Jeane

Welcome Jeane.

All of us once had only been working with InfoPath for one week, oh how time flies.

You should be able to highlight or select the area at the bottom of your form, or the whole form if it is all centered and then use the center justification button in the toolbar.  It should be pretty straight forward but sometimes one little area can get you or it could be in a section or something.  You could also cut it out (ctrl+x), delete the area, and then paste it back (ctrl+v). Sometimes that can clear things up too.

The zoom feature I just had another questions about today. In Word and other office Apps they have built in the zoom feature but in InfoPath they have not, at least not yet.  It is probably because as a form design you make the document and its components whatever size you want.

If you want a form that interacts with a database then you have to start it as a database form from the get go.  Create new form and then select database as the type and follow the prompts.

My advice, if I was in your shoes, and looking back at what i could tell myself now...

I would download the free Database Accelerator Web Services Suite.  It is more for advanced forms but in my experience once you show your boss or your coworkers what InfoPath and electronic forms can do they will pretty quickly want you to create a whole ERP system built on InfoPath. In that case you will want the tools in place to create enterprise solutions.  DBXL includes all the features and tools you will need to deliver these solutions.  There are lots of tutorials included and many on this site to get you started. You can use SQL Express, which is free, and IIS to get your development environment setup. This can save you lots of heartache from trying to use Access with a multi-user form.

Just my two cents worth...

Qdabra Database Accelerator Suite Version 2.0 - Developer

Thanks Clay,

I will work on this in a bit and let you know how it goes. I think this is a program where a week long class would be great. Do you know of any place that might have one?

 OHHH and something I forgot to mention. A quick scenario on this..

The Business owner (the person requesting the job) sends a request to the gal who is going to fill out the form (like a job ticket) will then send it to the project owner (the person doing the work) and when the job is complete the project owner sends it back to the gal who filled out the form which she sends back to the Business owner along with the work that was to be done. 

My problem is that when the project owner goes to send the form back it opens the form so that the person sending it back can make changes. This isn't bad for the project owner, but we don't want the Business Owner to be able to make changes. Is there a way to lock it so they the Business owner can't open it?

Thanks again!!

 Jeane 

Ok, me again...

I couldn't figure it out so I inserted a table where the  button needed to go and a text box where the title of the area to go. Centered them both and Ta Da!!

I can make due without the zoom feature it just would be a nice little thing to be able to do.

The rest I will continue to look into!

Thanks

Jeane 

What you need to do for your scenario is either identify the user or the status of the form.

If you use DBXL or another method to get the Username of the user and the group, etc you could have the form check the username and act accordingly.  Otherwise you could have a field to keep track of the state of the form and either have each user modify the state, maybe in a drop down, or when the form is emailed to the next step the status could get updated and act accordingly. However if you want say the project manager to still be able to go in and modify the form after it passes to the "gal" then you would probably need it userbased or both.

Well, as it turns out we ended up using a basic template in another program. It means more work now but they had to teach too many people about the system in a short period of time and some learn quicker than others, (and some don't want to learn at all.)

SO, I wanted to say THANK YOU! for helping out. I am glad I found the site and I will definately work on learning the program on my own. I think it has great potential!!!

 Thanks!

 Jeane