User Drawing Area In InfoPath

[PlantEngineer]

We currently use Excel to pass a good deal of data from offices to the
production floor. While most of this, say 80%, is just text type data, the
rest is visual. In Excel, our people insert images from clients and then use
the Excel drawing tools like lines and arrows, to show its relative position
to other items. This requirement seems to keep us locked into Excel. I used
form controls inside Excel to streamline this as much as possible. However,
Excel just isn't that great at handling forms. Infopath seems like a perfect
solution. I just need to know if you can have a drawing area on a form where
the user could place images and use drawing tools like in Excel. If so, does
this require very advanced programming experience? I have written some VB
code and used forms controls in Excel. I have also written a few simple
databases in Access and SQL server express.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Clay Fox]

There are a couple different ways to possibly architect an Infopath Solution.

Infopath would be a better form than Excel as you said.

You can have images in Infopath. They have a control for attaching and
displaying the images in your form. With Tablet PC you can ink on top of the
images, I have worked on a couple different solutions with this. I believe
now with Vista, since the inking is included, that you could get this same
functionality. This would just be drawing on the image and making
annotations. You would not have the draw toolbar if that is what you were
used to.
The other option is editing your images in another peice of software and
then embedding them in the form if the inking is not pratical or feasible.

You can also have your forms and their data saved into a database, this can
help security and performance but also gives you the ability to report and
analyze the form data. Check out the Database Accelerator for more
information. http://www.qdabra.com

--
Thanks

Clay Fox

Qdabra Software
http://www.qdabra.com

InfoPathDev.Com
The Largest InfoPath Forum in the World
http://www.infopathdev.com

 

[PlantEngineer]

That's what I was afraid of. The users are VERY used to the Excel drawing
tools and creating a new method or re-inventing the Excel drawing tools both
sound like dead ends.

Could a blank drawing area in Infopath open another application when clicked
and then return the drawing from that application to replace the blank
drawing space?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Clay Fox]

Yes you could probably use some code to automate the process and make it more
seamless. You may even be able to create an activeX control which included
the drawing tools inside the Form.

--
Thanks

Clay Fox

Qdabra Software
http://www.qdabra.com

InfoPathDev.Com
The Largest InfoPath Forum in the World
http://www.infopathdev.com