InfoPath Forms Advantages

In this tip article we will see the advantages of InfoPath Forms compared with SharePoint List Forms.

You know that for a SharePoint List, for new / edit / delete operations we can invoke:

• SharePoint Built-in Forms
• InfoPath Forms

The following is a screen shot of both the forms:



The following are the advantages of using InfoPath Forms compared with the default forms:

Custom Design Possibility	We can design the forms using InfoPath Designer that allows much more layout & user control choice.
Better Formatting Options	More colors & data formatting options are possible.
Better Validation Options	Better validations are possible
Better Data Entry through Repeating & Nested Sections	Repeating Sections allow capturing of repeating set of data.  For example multiple contacts addresses with same kind of fields like address, city, and state.
Lookup Data from various sources
Offline Form Filling	Forms can be send to users for offline filling (through email attachment)
Digital Signature	Users can digitally sign the form
Managed Code Integration	We can write custom code for much more control.
Late Form Submissions	Completed forms can be submitted later on through the Submit feature of InfoPath form filler.

The advantages are depicted below:



InfoPath & InfoPath Forms Services

Please note that there is a subtle difference between InfoPath & InfoPath Forms Services. InfoPath Forms Services is only available in the Enterprise edition of SharePoint.

InfoPath Forms provide browser-based form filling. The advantage is that the client need not install an InfoPath application to use forms.

You can see the edition features here:

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/pages/editions-comparison.aspx



References

http://bit.ly/pFvhVf

Summary

In this article we have gone through the advantages of InfoPath forms compared with SharePoint forms. I hope this will provide a good grip for advocating InfoPath forms with the customer.