Will I be able to use InfoPath in this network scenario?

[Fred Boer]

Me again...

I've been doing a lot of reading tonight, and I know more about Infopath
than I did earlier tonight. I have a slightly better grasp of "Publishing"
and "Saving". Before I put much more effort into Infopath, however, I wonder
if someone would be so kind as to tell me if I even *can* use Infopath in my
given scenario:

Staff in the office spend a lot of time on the road (3 days a week). When
they are in the office, using the wired LAN, their computers connect to the
network and map a shared folder. When on the road, they can connect to the
network using VPN, but the shared folder isn't mapped. Can Infopath work in
this scenario? I *think* so, but I'd like confirmation: In this setup, the
template is stored on the mapped drive, right? And when they can't connect
to the mapped drive they can work offline?

And please, finally, confirm the *exact* process:

User navigates to shared folder and Infopath published template.
User double-clicks published template, which opens an Infopath form.
User saves form with meaningful new name.

Is that right? But when the user is *not* connected to the shared folder,
what is the process?

Thanks.

 

[Steve]

You can post a form template to a shared drive where employees can open it
up, fill it out, and save it, presumably back to a shared location. Your
in-house employees are doing this just fine.

When the employees are travelling, they will not be able to download the
form from the shared drive, so you have two choices: start sharing the drive
through the VPN or have the employees save a local copy on their laptop
before travelling. When they return, they can upload the completed forms to
the shared location.

Does this make sense? There are obviously more sophisticated things that
could be done using SharePoint and Forms Services, but I think that this
covers your scenario.

HTH
..

 

[Fred Boer]

Thanks for replying, Steve! Sure that makes sense. When you say "have the
employees save a local copy on their laptop before travelling" do you mean
they copy and paste a copy of the *template* to their own laptops? Or just
create a blank form from the template, and put *that* on their laptops? And
can they generate multiple copies of the form?

Also (sorry for so many questions!)...Can forms be emailed back and forth?
For example:

Employee fills in form. Saves it. Then emails it to Supervisor. Supervisor
examines form, indicates approval, adds comments and emails it back to
employee, who then prints a hard copy and saves the revised form...

Sorry if these questions seem dumb.. When I started using Infopath, I just
assumed that the forms were like regular documents; that they could be
copied, pasted, emailed, and so on. Only after getting into this up to my
neck did I discover that InfoPath forms required a shared drive and seem (at
least at this point) rather tricky to manage...

I appreciate your help very much!

Thanks!