Microsoft Office InfoPath

Microsoft Office InfoPath is a word processing application developed by Microsoft. The program is part of the Microsoft family of programs, Microsoft Office. The program enables users to design and distribute electronic forms that may be filled up and submitted by the user’s clients. The forms contain structured data that may be filled up by typing in input boxes. The program features WYSIWYG functionality. WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get. This means that the final product will resemble the appearance of the form while being created inside the program. The WYSIWYG form designer features controls including checkboxes, textboxes, toggle buttons, and radio buttons, among others. These controls are bound to data which are in turn represented in a tree view of folders, files, and data fields.

Microsoft Office InfoPath functions differently from all other Microsoft Office programs. First, the form designer must create a form template. Afterwards, the same program will be used to fill up the form. All the data collected from the form are stored in a file with an XML format. This is called the data source. There must be one primary data source but users can setup secondary data sources. The program features different controls (checkboxes, buttons) to which actions or rules are bound in. There are three types of rules: formatting rules, validation rules, and action rules.