SharePoint 2010 Delivers Forms Services

SharePoint 2010 includes an updated version of InfoPath Forms Services, and Office 2010 delivers a new version of the InfoPath forms design and data entry client. InfoPath and InfoPath Forms Services can provide a method for organizations to capture data from Office users from within SharePoint as part of custom workflows or business applications. The new versions provide for easier development and deployment, enhance browser compatibility, and take advantage of new SharePoint features for editing data in external business applications, among other improvements. However, InfoPath still faces tough competition from Adobe’s Acrobat tools and PDF document format for some forms tasks.

One Tool for Web and Offline Forms

InfoPath is a client application (and part of the Office suite) for designing and filling out electronic forms. InfoPath forms use XML to describe both the form and the associated data. InfoPath improves on simple Web-based forms by enabling the following:

• Allowing offline