Tudor Toma has an excellent post on the new InfoPath 2007 and the integration scenarios with Outlook.
I’d like to focus now on the InfoPath rich client and give you a sense of how it can streamline your daily work with InfoPath e-mail forms. If you are familiar with InfoPath SP1 you probably know that it already allows you to send forms as attachments in email. So why is “e-mail forms” a new feature in Office InfoPath 2007? Well, the limitation in InfoPath SP1 is that forms are just regular attachments and they are not integrated in your Outlook email environment. So in Office 2007 we’ve decided to make forms a first class item in Outlook. That means forms can now be viewed, edited, saved, and forwarded similar to email messages, meetings, or tasks. In addition, e-mail forms can leverage Outlook PIM features like categories and follow up to add a new dimension to your forms workflow. E-mail forms now have their own folder type and they even have their own icon J. This tighter integration makes it really easy to work with forms and to leverage all the structured information they provide without having to leave your familiar Outlook environment. Let’s walk thru a short scenario using InfoPath e-mail forms.
