Newbie Questions

Re: How to use Infopath (Filler) 2010 forms for creating and changing client (browser disabled) forms?

Jimmy — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 07:46:10 GMT

Regardless of the underlying implementation, Filler and Designer serve completely tasks. Designer is a tool for creating InfoPath forms and Filler is a tool for filling them out. Neither is a restricted (or "castrated") mode of the other. They are two completely separate execution modes of the InfoPath executable.

Anyway, is there a point for this thread, or did you just want to complain?

To respond to your comment about list forms, list forms are a special type of form that are directly linked to a SharePoint list. They have features that make some list interactions easy to implement, but they also have a lot of limitations on account of this tightly-coupled, simplified design. They are fundamentally different from schema-based InfoPath forms, and that's why you can't switch between one and the other.

To answer your question in the thread's title, if you're just looking to create browser-compatible forms, all you need to do is open InfoPath Designer and select Blank Form or Blank 2007 Form. Those are browser-compatible by default.

Re: How to use Infopath (Filler) 2010 forms for creating and changing client (browser disabled) forms?

Gennady Vanin (Геннадий Ванин, Новосибирск) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 05:28:19 GMT

Anson Hidajat:
The designer and filler are separate in 2010. The designer is used for creating new forms and publishing it to SharePoint or some other location. The filler is only used to fill out existing forms. This is why you see the different options in the File menu for both

Using Sysinternals Process Explorer, it is easy to see that both "Infopath Designer 2010" and "Infopath Filler 2010" are launched from the same executable:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\INFOPATH.EXE /design

Infopath Filler 2010 is just a particular (restricted) mode of Infopath Designer 2010.

I believe that the same Infopath Filler is being used when I create new "Blank Form (Infopath Filler Form)" and edit/create forms in compatibility of "Infopath Filler Form".

Though, I still do not understand why a separate entry in Windows, which is a link for the same Infopath Designer in castrated mode, does exist at all.
It just dumps the time of users before they understand that "Infopath Filler 2010" program entry in Windows is just a (useless and frequently diverting) trap in disguise for their tasks

Re: How to use Infopath (Filler) 2010 forms for creating and changing client (browser disabled) forms?

Anson Hidajat — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:37:50 GMT

The designer and filler are separate in 2010. The designer is used for creating new forms and publishing it to SharePoint or some other location. The filler is only used to fill out existing forms. This is why you see the different options in the File menu for both.

How to use Infopath (Filler) 2010 forms for creating and changing client (browser disabled) forms?

Gennady Vanin (Геннадий Ванин, Новосибирск) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:23:39 GMT

When I launch Infopath Filler 2010, in File --> New I see only "Recently used Forms", "Find a Form", and custom filler form libraries I published before.

But when I launch Infopath Designer 2010, in File --> New, I see "Blank Form (Infopath Filler Form)" and "Sharepoint Form Library" using which I have compatibility (File --> Form Options --> Compatibility ) set (or possible to change) to "Infopath Filler Form".

Why is such difference?

If in Infopath Designer 2010 I create "Sharepoint List" form, then (File --> Form Options --> ) Compatibility shows that:

"Form type:" is set to "Sharepoint List Form" and desactived, i.e. blocked for creating/changing sharepoint lists from client (non-browser) Infopath forms? And why?