Handling several InfoPath 2007 templates in one SharePoint library

[Susan H]

Hi,

Last year, our company hired a consultant to set up a SharePoint document
library with several InfoPath templates. When user clicks on a template, the
corresponding form opens and when user click on the submit button, an email
of the form is sent to the appropriate service desk. The forms are NOT saved
to SharePoint.

I have been given the job of maintaining this library. The library was
originally set up in SharePoint 3 but the forms are in InfoPath 2003. We are
now using InfoPath 2007. I have two problems I cannot seem to figure out and
hope someone can help.

1. In the older version of InfoPath, to change a form template, all I had to
do was open the form in design mode, make my change, then save it. The change
automatically appeared in SharePoint. Now with InfoPath 2007, to change the
form template I cannot just save it but am required to re-publish it.
However, I do not know how the form was published in the first place. I can
create and change templates that put forms in their own form library, but I
cannot figure out how to publish the changed template to a document library
containing several different templates. I used to be able to do this with
InfoPath 2003 by just saving the shortcut to the document template but that
doesn't seem to work any more. Any suggestions?

2. I would also like to add another template to the list of templates, but
again cannot figure out how to publish it.

One other complication to note - when we upgraded SharePoint, we ended up in
our 'create' page with two 'document library' and 'form library' options.
Nobody can figure out why, but the first occurence of the option gives an
error so we always have to make sure we select the second occurrence when we
are trying to create a document library or form library. For this reason, I
cannot create a document or form library while I am publishing an InfoPath
form, because the first occurence is taken as the default and consequently
causes errors, so whenever I publish, I have to create the document or form
library first, then publish to an 'existing' library. I am not sure if this
issue will prevent me from working with the library of multiple templates,
but thought I should mention it.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Susan

 

[Gene P]

Hi Susan,

I'm no expert but I think i know what your issue is... Within SharePoint
2007, the introduced "Content Types" This features serves a number of
purposes. What you need to know is that you can have as many content types as
you want within one document library. The cool part of this is that a
different template can be stored on each Content type. That includes
templates for the whole MS Office Suite. One of the first things you need to
do is activate content types on the document library in question. Once you
do, you'll see a new section displayed under the Advanced selection. If
you're trying to modify an existing template and there are already more then
one templates in existance, you will see the Content Types listed. Select
each individual content typ and then a new menu will be presented to you that
looks very similar to the settings menu on the document library level. Select
Advanced Settings on the menu and you'll see a link on the right that will
give you access to that individual template. Do the same thing for each
template. In summary, multiple templates used in a document library are
stored on the Content Type level not the tradtional level that you're used
to. For what it's worth, i had the same problem. Good luck!
Gene