Creating and Editing Custom Document Information Panels in InfoPath 2007

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Summary: Learn how to create and edit a custom document information panel in Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007.

Office Visual How To

Applies to: 2007 Microsoft Office System, Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Joel Krist, Akona Systems

July 2007

Overview

The document information panel is available in Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 documents. It enables users to view and change the properties for an individual file or for a content type that is saved to a document management server, such as a Document Workspace site or a library based on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. These properties are known as metadata, or data that describes other data. For example, the words in a document are data; the word count is an example of metadata. The metadata contains details about a file that describe or identify it. You can use these properties to organize, identify, and search for documents.

This article describes how to create and edit a custom document information panel in Office InfoPath 2007. In InfoPath 2007, you can navigate to the site or list that you want and select the content type for which you want to create a custom document information panel. InfoPath 2007 sets the selected content type as the form template's primary data source, and it sets the automatically generated form as a starting point. When the form is finished, you can publish it to the content type or to some other location.

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To show how to create or edit a custom document information panel from InfoPath 2007, this section describes five key steps:

  1. Creating an Office Word 2007 document template to use as the document template for a custom Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 content type.

  2. Creating site columns to use with a custom SharePoint Server 2007 content type.

  3. Creating a custom SharePoint Server 2007 content type and associating the document template and site columns created in steps 1 and 2 with the content type.

  4. Using InfoPath 2007 to create a custom document information panel for the content type created in step 3.

  5. Creating a SharePoint Server 2007 document library and adding the content type created in step 3 to the document library.

Creating a Word 2007 Document Template

This article uses the example of a Project Status Report document to show how to work with a custom document information panel. The first step is to create a template for the Project Status Report.

Follow these steps to create a Word 2007 document template.

To create a Word 2007 document template

  1. Start Office Word 2007.

  2. Type some text into the document to identify it as a Project Status Report, for example, type This is a Project Status Report.

  3. Save the document as a Word 2007 template (*.dotx) named "Project Status Report Template.dotx."

  4. Exit Word.

Creating Site Columns

The next step is to define two Project Status Report-related site columns. You can use SharePoint site columns to define a set of shared columns that can be reused across multiple libraries and content types.

To define the Project Status Report-related site columns, follow these steps.

  1. In SharePoint Server 2007, click Site Actions, point to Site Settings, and then click Modify All Site Settings, as shown in Figure 1.

    Figure 1. Modifying all site settings

    Modifying all site settings

  2. On the Site Settings page, under Galleries, click Site columns, as shown in Figure 2.

    Figure 2. Site columns

    Site columns

  3. On the Site Column Gallery page, click Create to create a new site column (see Figure 3).

    Figure 3. Creating a site column

    Creating site columns

  4. On the New Site Column page, create a new column that has the following properties:

    • Column Name: Project Name

    • The type of information in this column is: Single line of text

    • Put this site column into: New group. Name the new group Project Status Report.

    • Require that this column contains information: Yes

    • Leave the default settings for the remaining properties.

  5. Click OK to create the new column.

  6. On the Site Column Gallery page, click Create to create a new site column.

  7. On the New Site Column page, create a new column that has the following properties:

    • Column Name: Project Status

    • The type of information in this column is: Choice (menu to select from)

    • Put this site column into: Existing group. Select the Project Status Report group that you created in step 4.

    • Require that this column contain information: Yes

    • Type each choice on a separate line:

      Design

      Implementation

      Testing

      Complete

    • Display choices using: Drop-Down menu

    • Allow 'Fill-in' choices: No

    • Default value: Choice. Select Design.

  8. Click OK to create the new column.

    The Site Column Gallery page appears.

Creating a Content Type

The next step is to create a Project Status Report content type. Defining a content type creates a template that you can reuse in multiple libraries to help standardize the documents that you create and store in a document library.

Follow these steps to define the Project Status Report content type.

To define the Project Status Report content type

  1. In SharePoint Server 2007, click Site Actions, click Site Settings, and then click Modify All Site Settings.

  2. On the Site Settings page, under Galleries, click Site content types, as shown in Figure 4.

    Figure 4. Site content types

    Site content types

  3. On the Site Content Type Gallery page, click Create to create a new site content type.

  4. On the New Site Content Type page, specify the following values for the new content type:

    • Name: Project Status Report

    • Description: Create a new Project Status Report

    • Select parent content type from: Document Content Types

    • Parent Content Type: Document

    • Put this site content type into: New group. Name the new group Project Status Report.

  5. Click OK to create the new content type.

  6. To associate the site columns that you created earlier with the new content type, on the Site Content Type: Project Status Report page, click Add from existing site columns under Columns, as shown in Figure 5.

    Figure 5. Adding from existing site columns

    Adding from existing site columns

  7. On the Add Columns to Site Content Type: Project Status Report page, in the Select columns from list, select the Project Status Report group.

  8. Select the Project Name and Project Status columns, as shown in Figure 6.

    Figure 6. Selecting Project Status Report columns

    Selecting Project Status Report columns

  9. Click OK.

  10. On the Site Content Type: Project Status Report page, associate the Word Project Status Report document template that you created earlier with the Project Status Report content type. Under Settings, click Advanced settings, as shown in Figure 7.

    Figure 7. Advanced settings

    Advanced settings

  11. On the Site Content Type Advanced Settings: Project Status Report page, select the Upload a new document template option (see Figure 8), and then click Browse.

    Figure 8. Uploading a new document template

    Uploading a new document template

  12. Navigate to the folder that contains the Project Status Report Template.dotx document created earlier, select the file, and then click Open.

  13. Click OK to specify the document template for the Project Status Report content type.

    The Site Content Type: Project Status Report page appears.

Creating a Custom Document Information Panel

Next, use Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 to create a custom document information panel for the Project Status Report content type.

To create a custom document information panel

  1. Start Office InfoPath 2007.

  2. On the File menu, click Design a Form.

  3. In the Design a Form Template dialog box (see Figure 9), under Design a new, select Form Template, select XML or Schema, and then click OK.

    Figure 9. Design a Form Template dialog box

    Design a Form Template dialog box

    The Data Source Wizard appears, as shown in Figure 10.

    Figure 10. Data Source Wizard

    Data Source Wizard

  4. Navigate to the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site or list on which the content type is located, and then click Next.

    InfoPath 2007 queries the server and displays a list of the content types residing on the specified list or site. If you entered a site URL, InfoPath displays a list of the site content types on that site. If you entered a document library URL, InfoPath displays a list of content types available for that document library.

  5. Select the Project Status Report content type, and click Next (see Figure 11).

    InfoPath 2007 warns you if a custom document information panel was already created for this content type. To create another custom form, click OK.

    Figure 11. Selecting a content type in the Data Source Wizard

    Selecting a content type in the Data Source Wizard

  6. On the last page, click Finish.

    InfoPath loads the form template for the Project Status Report content type document information panel, as shown in Figure 12.

    Figure 12. Project Status Report document information panel template

    Project Status Report document information panel

  7. Edit the template by selecting the Horizontal Region for the Title property and deleting it.

    Now the only remaining items on the form are the controls for the Project Name property and the Project Status property (see Figure 13).

    Figure 13. Edited document information panel template in InfoPath

    Edited document information panel template

  8. Save the template by clicking Save on the File menu.

    A message box appears and states that you have to publish the template after you finish designing it. Click OK.

  9. In the Save As dialog box, specify a location and name for the template, and then click Save.

  10. Publish the changed template back to SharePoint Server by selecting Publish on the File menu.

  11. The Publishing Wizard starts with the option to publish the template As a Document Information Panel template for a SharePoint site content type or list content type selected (see Figure 14). Keep this option selected and click Next.

    Figure 14. InfoPath Publishing Wizard

    InfoPath Publishing Wizard

    The next page of the Publishing Wizard (see Figure 15) shows the publishing location information.

    Figure 15. Publishing the document information panel template

    Publishing the document information panel template

  12. Click Publish.

    InfoPath publishes the template to the Project Status Report content type.

  13. Click Close, and then exit InfoPath.

Creating a Document Library

Next, create a SharePoint document library for Project Status Reports.

To create a SharePoint document library for Project Status Reports

  1. In SharePoint Server 2007, click Site Actions.

  2. Select Site Settings, and then click Modify All Site Settings.

  3. On the Site Settings page, under Site Administration, click Site libraries and lists, as shown in Figure 16.

    Figure 16. Site libraries and lists

    Site libraries and lists

  4. On the Site Libraries and Lists page, click Create new content.

  5. On the Create page, under Libraries, click Document Library, as shown in Figure 17.

    Figure 17. Creating a document library

    Creating a document library

  6. On the New page, specify the following values for the properties of the new document library (see Figure 18):

    • Name: Project Status Reports

    • Description: A library for Project Status Reports

    • Document Template: Microsoft Office Word document

    Figure 18. Document library properties

    Document library properties

  7. Click Create to create the library.

  8. On the Project Status Reports library page, click Settings, and then click Document Library Settings, as shown in Figure 19.

    Figure 19. Document library settings

    Document library settings

  9. On the Customize Project Status Reports page, under General Settings, click Advanced settings.

  10. On the Document Library Advanced Settings: Project Status Reports page, under Content Types, for the Allow management of content types option, select Yes, and then click OK.

    The Customize Project Status Reports page appears with the Content Types section now visible.

  11. Under Content Types, select Add from existing site content types, as shown in Figure 20.

    Figure 20. Adding from existing site content types

    Adding from existing site content types

    The Add Content Types: Project Status Reports page opens.

  12. In the Select site content types from list, select Project Status Report, and add the Project Status Report content type (see Figure 21).

    Figure 21. Add Project Status Report content type

    Adding Project Status Report content type

    Click OK to add the content type to the library. The Customize Project Status Reports page opens.

  13. Under Content Types, click Document, as shown in Figure 22.

    Figure 22. Document content type

    Document content type

    The List Content Type: Document page appears.

  14. Under Settings, click Delete this content type (see Figure 23), and click OK when prompted for verification.

    Figure 23. Delete document content type

    Deleting document content type

Read It

To test the custom document information panel, navigate to the Project Status Reports SharePoint document library, click New, and then select Project Status Report, as shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24. Creating a new Project Status Report document

Creating a new Project Status Report document

If a warning message appears, click OK. Word 2007 starts with the Project Status Report document loaded. The custom document information panel shows the Project Name and Project Status properties (see Figure 25). Editing and saving the document publishes it to the Project Status Reports SharePoint document library.

Figure 25. Custom document information panel

Custom document information panel

For more information about document information panels, see Document Information Panel Overview.

This how-to topic explores how to create or edit a custom document information panel in Office InfoPath 2007, and it describes the key steps:

  1. Creating an Office Word 2007 document template to use as the document template for a custom SharePoint Server 2007 content type.

  2. Creating site columns to use with a custom SharePoint Server 2007 content type.

  3. Creating a custom SharePoint Server 2007 content type and associating a document template and site columns with the content type.

  4. Using InfoPath 2007 to create a custom document information panel for the content type.

  5. Creating a SharePoint Server 2007 document library and adding the content type to it.

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