Solution for small business owner

[CycleFitness]

I'm an IT consultant who is well versed in creating InfoPath forms. I also
have a photography business and want to create browser-based forms for my
client's to fill out. Not sure what the destination data source will be;
either my own Access DB or a third-party studio management application.

In any event, I understand InfoPath Forms Services must be running on the
server hosting the form. I'm assuming that's the requirement to present the
form to a Web user without InfoPath. I don't have a server nor do I want to
maintain a server. I'm sure there are vendors who can host for me and am
looking for recommendations.

Thanks!
Deb

 

[CycleFitness]

On the other hand, if I want to just receive the form via email and enter the
data into a database manually, what options are there that give me the most
flexibility in form design? Adobe PDF? Outlook forms?

 

[Gavin McKay]

Hello,

Where will your clients be filling out the forms - at your business or
externally? If they are going to be using the form at your business (like a
photography kiosk for example) then you could use the InfoPath client. If
they are external, you would need to use InfoPath Forms Services to deliver
the forms via the web, otherwise your clients would have to have InfoPath on
their machines. Outlook forms would have the same issue - they need Outlook
and they need to the Outlook Form on their machine.

You might be better off with a simple website to capture the data rather
than trying to find a host for InfoPath Forms Services. I know of a few
SharePoint hosts, but not sure if they would offer InfoPath Forms Services
with that.

Gavin.