Amal Nagm

Understanding Document Information Panels

Design a Document Information Panel

1. On the File menu, click Design a Form Template.
2. Under Design a new in the Design a Form Template dialog box, click Form Template.
3. In the Based on gallery, click Blank, and then click OK. This enables InfoPath to define the data source as you design the form template. Note You can also base your form template on an XML document or XML Schema, such as the Dublin Core Properties. In addition, you can design your form template by using a Web service, a database, or settings in a data connection library. Find information about designing a form template based on a data source in the See Also section.
   
4. Design the form template to use as a Document Information Panel.
   Tip By creating a template part to contain common fields, you can coordinate the efficient reuse of Document Information Panels in different 2007 Office release document types across your organization. If you created a template part and added it to the Controls task pane, you can insert the template part onto your form template by using the following procedure.
   1. Place the cursor on the form template where you want to insert the template part.
   2. If the Controls task pane is not visible, click More Controls on the Insert menu, or press ALT+I, C.
   3. Under Custom in the Insert controls list, click the name of the template part that you want to insert.
      The template part appears inside a section control on the form template. You can recognize the template part on the form template because the words Section (Template Part: Name) appear as the section label, where Name is the name of the template part file.
      
   
   
5. Rename the default view, and any other views in the form template. How?
   
   1. On the View menu, click Manage Views.
   2. In the Views task pane, click the view that you want to rename, and then click View Properties.
   3. Click the General tab.
   4. In the View name box, type a new name for the view.
   Note Even if your form template contains only one view, you should give the view a friendly name, such as Custom Properties, because the name of the view will appear in the Property Views and Options list when the Document Information Panel is viewed in a document.
   
6. Publish the Document Information Panel to a shared network folder. How?
   
   1. On the File menu, click Publish.
   2. In the Publishing Wizard, click To a network location, and then click Next.
   3. On the next page of the wizard, click Browse.
   4. Browse to the shared network folder where you want to publish the form template, and then click OK.
   5. On the next page of the wizard, verify that the path and form template name in the Form template name box are correct, and then click Next.
   6. On the next page of the wizard, if you have an alternate path to this shared network folder, such as a public Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (Uniform Resource Locator (URL): An address that specifies a protocol (such as HTTP or FTP) and a location of an object, document, World Wide Web page, or other destination on the Internet or an intranet, for example: http://www.microsoft.com/.), type the path in the box, and then click Next.
   7. On the next page of the wizard, click Publish. You will receive a confirmation on the last page of the wizard if your form template was successfully published.
      
   Note You can also publish the Document Information Panel to a SharePoint site. Find information about publishing to a SharePoint site in the See Also section.
   

Create or edit a custom Document Information Panel for a SharePoint content type

• Add features such as data validation (data validation: The process of testing the accuracy of data; a set of rules you can apply to a control to specify the type and range of data that users can enter.) or conditional formatting (conditional formatting: The process of changing the appearance of a control, including its visibility and read-write state, based on values entered into the form.).
• Add a secondary data connection to the Document Information Panel, and then add controls that display data from fields in the data source.
• Create a new view, and then add a template part that contains common fields that your organization can use to track data. Note When a Document Information Panel is based on a SharePoint content type schema, you cannot customize the Document Information Panel by adding fields that are not part of that schema. To add or remove fields from the content type schema, you must add or remove columns from the content type.
  

Create or edit a custom Document Information Panel

1. On the File menu, click Design a Form Template.
2. Under Design a new in the Design a Form Template dialog box, click Form Template.
3. In the Based on list, click XML or Schema, and then click OK. Note Do not select the Enable browser-compatible features only check box because the Document Information Panel will only display as part of a 2007 Office release document, not as part of a Web page.
   
4. In the Data Source Wizard, type the URL for the SharePoint server, and then click Next.
5. In the Select a list or web list, click the name of the content type that you want, and then click Next.
6. Click Finish. The Document Information Panel for the content type schema opens.
   
7. Make the changes that you want to the Document Information Panel, and then save the form template. Note Because the Document Information Panel is based on the content type schema, which is the main data source for the form template, you cannot customize the Document Information Panel by adding fields that are not part of the schema. To add or remove fields from the Document Information Panel by adding new fields to the content type schema, you must add or remove columns from the content type.
   
8. On the File menu, click Publish.
9. In the Publishing Wizard, click As a Document Information Panel template for a SharePoint site content type or list content type (recommended), and then click Next. Note As a Document Information Panel template for a SharePoint site content type or list content type (recommended) only appears on this page of the wizard if you clicked XML or Schema in step 3.
   
10. On the next page of the wizard, click Publish. You will receive a confirmation on the last page of the wizard if your form template was successfully published.
    

Add a custom Document Information Panel to a document

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Program Name Options, where Program Name is the name of the program that you are working in. For example, click Word Options.
2. In the Program Name Options dialog box, click Popular, select the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box, and then click OK. Note The Ribbon is part of the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface
   
3. Click the Developer tab on the Office Fluent Ribbon, and then click Document Panel.
4. In the Document Information Panel dialog box, under Specify a custom template (URL, UNC, or URN), type the location of the Document Information Panel that you want to add to the document.
5. To display the custom properties by default in your document, in the Display by default list, click Custom Properties.
6. To display the Document Information Panel by default, click the Always show Document Information Panel on document open and initial save check box.