Urgent Help required with a design problem

[SkySurfer]

Hi,

I have been trying desperately (for about 10 days now) to create a new form
for employee absence and sickness.
Initially I started by modifying the sample form in Infopath 2003 but
eventually scrapped that idea and created a totally fresh one, thinking that
the modified sample might be causing my problem.
The form uses data from an existing Access database to display information
before filling in required fields.

The problem I am repeatedly having is that while designing the form, I
continually save it in exactly the same location to ensure I am protecting my
work as I go along.
Sooner or later, with every form design I have done, I save the work, close
the program, and when I come back to it to continue I can no longer open the
form in DESIGN mode.
It will always work perfectly well in FILL-IN mode.

Please help - am going insane with it now !!

 

[Lenore Benefield]

SkySurfer,

It looks like you are opening the form by double-clicking on it. That would
open the form to be filled out as would double-clicking a form name in the
recently used forms list.

Save a new form to your desktop. Right-clcik and select design (rather than
open).
or
Open InfoPath and choose Design a form,
Then choose the file under Open a form in design mode. If you don't see it
choose, On My Computer... and navigate to where you last saved the form.

Good luck!

 

[Adam Harding]

You can also 'explore' to it right click and select design

 

[SkySurfer]

The problem I am having is that I am in effect being "locked out" of the form
in design mode.
It will always open up in "user" mode ready to be filled in but after about
3-4 hours of working on the design and saving as I go along, sooner or later
when I come to continue working on it, it will then suddenly refuse to
re-open in design mode anymore, simply reporting the error "Infopath cannot
open the following form: F:\infopath\absence.xsn".
However, try and open the form in "user mode" to fill it in and it works fine.
No matter which method of trying to open it in design mode I use (right
click, browse to it, etc etc) , it flatly refuses to open.

Never had this problem designing any forms before and am struggling to see
the reason for it, especially having re-done the form multiple times now

 

[SkySurfer]

Hi,

The problem I am having is that I am in effect being "locked out" of the
form in design mode.
It will always open up in "user" mode ready to be filled in but after about
3-4 hours of working on the design and saving as I go along, sooner or later
when I come to continue working on it, it will then suddenly refuse to
re-open in design mode anymore, simply reporting the error "Infopath cannot
open the following form: F:\infopath\absence.xsn".
However, try and open the form in "user mode" to fill it in and it works fine.
No matter which method of trying to open it in design mode I use (right
click, browse to it, etc etc) , it flatly refuses to open.

Never had this problem designing any forms before and am struggling to see
the reason for it, especially having re-done the form multiple times now

 

[SkySurfer]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for answering - I have changed the extension to a .cab as suggested
and extracted the various component files out to have a look at them to see
if I can find anything in there that might give me a clue.
The trouble is though my experience with code doesnt run to that level so
the problem could be staring me in the face and I wouldnt know it... lol

What I am finding hard to grasp is that I have started this form from
scratch now 7 or 8 times and every time it eventually fails during the
design process (at different stages) and refuses to let me back in to design
it further yet it will still open and function as a form perfectly well (to
the level I have designed it).

I have tried to open it in design mode on other pc's on our network (without
any success) to eliminate my machine as a possibility and have opened other
forms in design mode on my machine just to be sure the program installation
is ok.

It seems to be simply an issue with this form and the program is giving me
no clues as to what the problem actually is.

Am beginning to think we had better keep our paper based system...lol

It is possible one of the files has been corrupted.

..xsn files are simply .cab files. If you rename the extension to .cab then you can manually extract the files out of it. But you will need to have some idea what you are looking for in order to make it work again.

--
Greg Collins [InfoPath MVP]
Please visit: http://www.InfoPathDev.com



Hi,

The problem I am having is that I am in effect being "locked out" of the
form in design mode.
It will always open up in "user" mode ready to be filled in but after about
3-4 hours of working on the design and saving as I go along, sooner or later
when I come to continue working on it, it will then suddenly refuse to
re-open in design mode anymore, simply reporting the error "Infopath cannot
open the following form: F:\infopath\absence.xsn".
However, try and open the form in "user mode" to fill it in and it works fine.
No matter which method of trying to open it in design mode I use (right
click, browse to it, etc etc) , it flatly refuses to open.

Never had this problem designing any forms before and am struggling to see
the reason for it, especially having re-done the form multiple times now

SkySurfer,

It looks like you are opening the form by double-clicking on it. That would
open the form to be filled out as would double-clicking a form name in the
recently used forms list.

Save a new form to your desktop. Right-clcik and select design (rather than
open).
or
Open InfoPath and choose Design a form,
Then choose the file under Open a form in design mode. If you don't see it
choose, On My Computer... and navigate to where you last saved the form.

Good luck!

 

[Renee in Juneau]

Try this:

Go ahead and open the form in "Fill out" mode.
Enter a field or two and save the data then exit out.
Reopen it and, from tools in the menubar, choose "Design this form"
It'll probably give you some sort of dialog saying that this is
version X of the form while it found version Y in your cache.
Go ahead and open version X and save it right away with a new
filename. You can republish it later with the "proper" name, when
you've got it the way you want it.

FWIW, I usually save my infopath form with a successive series of
names in the same folder (eg: Form1, Form2, ...FormX). This allows me
to go back to an earlier incarnation when I've irretrievably screwed
up (I experiment alot so sometimes its easier to just back up a bit),
but it also helps prevent any creeping corruptions from locking me out
totally (as seems to have happened with you).