Office InfoPath 2007 can help you efficiently gather information through rich, dynamic forms. The information collected can easily be reused throughout organizations and across business processes because Office InfoPath 2007 uses XML and other standards to integrate with your existing infrastructure. Office InfoPath 2007 customers who share information across their organizations and business processes can help improve their business impact. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 offers InfoPath Forms Services to help customers get control over their forms management, as well as extending the reach of electronic forms to Web browsers and mobile devices.

Office InfoPath 2007 provides you with an easy and efficient way to create, deploy, and manage rich, interactive forms. In addition, Office InfoPath 2007 provides a user-friendly interface for entering information using the familiar Microsoft Office user interface. Ready-to-use sample forms in Office InfoPath 2007 provide templates for common usage scenarios.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 with InfoPath Forms Services provides organizations with a tool to centralize the management and deployment of electronic forms across the organizations. InfoPath Forms Services also adds the powerful new capability to render InfoPath forms to Web browsers and mobile devices, so that people can fill out forms without having InfoPath installed.

Office InfoPath 2007 and InfoPath Forms Services were designed to work together, enabling teams and organizations to collect and use information easier. Office InfoPath 2007 is valuable to organizations that need an efficient and flexible way to collect and integrate information using the familiar Microsoft Office environment. It also provides standards-based integration with your current infrastructure. Users of many skill levels can create and deploy electronic forms to efficiently gather information.

Office InfoPath 2007 can help you obtain information in a timely manner, which can then help you make informed and effective decisions. You can use Office InfoPath 2007 to:

• Collect information quickly and validate it against your organization's business criteria. This helps reduce errors, prevents you from having to redo work, and can help you get the information you need more quickly and accurately.
• Gather information so that it can be reused and shared across business processes and throughout your organization.
• Provide you with a flexible way to collect information so you can adjust to changing business conditions.
• Take advantage of existing IT investments and knowledge to ease deployment costs.
• Structure information gathering processes that are difficult to manage or require excessive manual review and validation.

Office InfoPath 2007 and InfoPath Forms Services can be applied to many different scenarios, either within organizations and workgroups, or across suppliers and partners. Using InfoPath forms solutions:

• A division manager can design and implement a performance appraisal system.
• A company can implement a timecard or expense reporting system. The IT department can centralize the management of forms for every organization under in a single environment
• A health insurance company can create and implement its forms, and then integrate them into its database system and with the business processes of member hospitals.
• A team or workgroup can submit weekly status reports.

When combined as a forms platform, Office InfoPath 2007 and InfoPath Forms Services provide an end-to-end solution for organizations that seek to streamline forms-driven processes using electronic forms.

• Office InfoPath 2007 is used for designing and deploying forms, as well as enabling rich client fill in. Office InfoPath 2007 is used to deploy InfoPath forms as Microsoft Outlook e-mail messages.
• Office InfoPath 2007 is also used to collect information and update Microsoft Access databases automatically
• InfoPath Forms Services is used to centralize the management of forms throughout the entire organization. InfoPath Forms Services is used to extend InfoPath forms to Web browsers and mobile devices.

Find pricing and licensing information on the 2007 Microsoft Office system pricing page.

Yes. Find packaging information on the 2007 Microsoft Office packaging page.

You can download a free trial of Office InfoPath 2007 (as part of Office Enterprise 2007). Or, you can try Office InfoPath 2007 in your Web browser through the online test drive.

Yes. You can download a free trial of Office SharePoint Server 2007 or visit the online test drive.

The Microsoft Office system provides customers with a set of programs that they can choose from to best address their business needs. Office InfoPath 2007 can be used as the interface to help gather information more effectively. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 is a spreadsheet program that can help you analyze numerical data. Microsoft Office Word 2007 provides word-processing capabilities for documents. Microsoft Office Access 2007 is a database management program for storing information and creating reports. Use Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 to graphically present information.

See the system requirements for Office InfoPath 2007.

Office InfoPath 2007 works with any XML-enabled database or server by providing support for Web services and database interoperability. Office InfoPath 2007 also supports direct connectivity to Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Office Access databases, to enable you to develop and deploy forms that communicate directly with many different data sources or databases in a single form.

XML helps people create common languages for organizing, exchanging, and storing data. Having data in XML means that the information is transportable and can be easily shared and reused.

The default file format for Office InfoPath 2007 is XML, and Office InfoPath 2007 supports any custom-defined XML schema, which means that information gathered using InfoPath forms more easily integrates with server systems. Using Office InfoPath 2007 to gather information can improve the flow of information throughout the organization. Office InfoPath 2007 is a great example of how Microsoft Office system programs take advantage of XML technology to help people, teams, and organizations manage and use information more productively.

Microsoft .NET is a set of software technologies for connecting people, systems, information, and devices. It is built on a foundation of XML Web services, so that new and existing applications can connect with software and services across operating systems, programs, and programming languages. Office InfoPath 2007 works well as a client for Web services because it was built to work with XML and can help customers connect information with business processes and solutions.

Office InfoPath 2007 provides powerful functionality such as business logic validation, rich text formatting, AutoCorrect, and spelling checker. Office InfoPath 2007 also enables integration with other applications within the 2007 Microsoft Office system, including embedding InfoPath forms as Office Outlook e-mail messages, and using a custom Document Information Panel within Office Word 2007, Office Excel 2007, and Office PowerPoint 2007 to help structure and gather information about the documents within the programs.

Using InfoPath Forms Services or Office SharePoint Server 2007, you can deploy an InfoPath form template to a Web browser, so virtually anybody can complete the form without requiring any software installation. Using the design checker in Office InfoPath 2007, you can create forms that are compatible with the InfoPath 2007 client and the Web browser. Find more information about Office InfoPath Forms Services.