InfoPath on Pre-Office2003 machines

[johnb]

Hi All

I'm need to email/distribute a Form that needs filling by many customers on
their site/computer and returned to the author for loading in to Access db.
Is InfoPath a suitable tool to do this job. I know some customers have Office
97, 2000 and 2002. Will InfoPath operate in those environments. Can it be
filled in without a web presence, server network or SharePoint

Ive just looked at InfoPath and it looks a very useful tool.

johnb

 

[Clay Fox]

All form users would need InfoPath to complete the forms. That is the XML
editing client. Then when they were emailed back they could be submitted to
Access or SQL very easily. The challenge is that only Office 2003 or 2007
users of the full Office suite would have it or could get it.

Another option is to have a server which hosts the forms but this would be
probably over kill, you might as well have a web server to collect your data.
It is possible to have forms hosted which deposit your data in SQL for you to
download.

 

[johnb]

Hi Clay

Thank you for the reply. So in essence I can't attach an InfoPath Form to an
Email and post it the any customer in the same way as you attach a Word
document.

 

[Clay Fox]

Oh No. You can attach it, you can automate the email delivery to a great
degree.

However if you email someone a word document, they need Word for it to do
them any good. In the same way the recipient would need InfoPath and a lot
fewer people have Infopath.

It would work great for you and your process but would be dependent on the
clients. In an enterprise where everyone has the same thing and you know
what they have it works great. But in your case would be unlikely everyone
has it.

Another option I forgot to mention is a terminal server with Infopath that
remote users could access to complete the forms.