Updated InfoPath To Get Ink Support, Managed Code Capabilities

InfoPath 2003, part of the Microsoft Office System family, will get support for handwritten input, digital signatures and managed code, Microsoft said. InfoPath is an electronic forms application that links popular desktop applications with back-end server-based data.

The inking capability, tighter links to the Visual Studio.Net development environment, and security improvements will be delivered in the InfoPath 2003 Feature Enhancements Preview starting Monday, said Bobby Moore, InfoPath product manager. The final enhancements will then be made available later this year in the Office 2003 Service Pack 1, as first reported by CRN. The entire Office family was widely available last October.

With the updates, InfoPath forms will automatically support Microsoft's Tablet PC environment. "We also tweaked the user interface to easily identify fields where you want inked input," Moore said. "With V.1 release, we had support for pictures but not for handwriting recognition. That is an obvious improvement."

Another key enhancement will be the ability for InfoPath to handle managed code, Moore said.

"In the past when you created InfoPath solutions, there were things you needed to do that you had to do in code that you now won't have to do in code, you just use standard InfoPath controls," he noted.

With this update, InfoPath also becomes a "first-class citizen" within Visual Studio.Net, Moore added. "You can leverage VS.net, C#, VisualBasic, all the tools that create managed code, " he noted. That should open up the ability to create InfoPath forms to a whole new population of programmers with Visual Studio, C# expertise.

Microsoft also addressed problems users had e-mailing InfoPath forms around. Customers found that the forms sometimes did not open correctly. "Now the attachment will always open without error messages," Moore said. Recipients of the forms still need to have InfoPath installed.

The Office Service Pack 1 is due in June.