When you create an InfoPath form, you want people to use it for their data. One way you can make them more likely to use your form is by following the data structures already shared in your organization. That way, data entered in your form is automatically ready for other purposes.

An XML schema, used with XML documents, ensures that your data follows a shared structure. In this course, see how InfoPath enables you to create a form based on an existing XML schema.

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While this course offers a bit of explanation about an XML schema, it assumes you have a grounding in XML and in InfoPath.

• For an introduction to InfoPath, see Introducing Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003.
• For more about InfoPath and XML, see How InfoPath uses XML technologies.

Practices    To do the practice sessions for this course, you must have Microsoft Office InfoPath™ 2003 Service Pack 1 installed.

Other data structures   You can base an InfoPath form on an XML schema or on two other kinds of data structure: Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server™ databases, or Web services — you can display database data via a Web service if you use a database that InfoPath doesn't directly support.