Introducing Microsoft® Office InfoPath™ 2003

Starting with a New, Blank Form

It’s a better practice to base a form on an existing XML document than to design a form from scratch. Creating a form template and XML schema from a sample XML document ensures that your form design can produce usable data documents. If you don’t have a well-formed .xml file to use and don’t want to write one in Notepad, you can design the XML data document’s schema in the Data Source task pane. Before you embark on designing the data document and form simultaneously, create the document design on paper and review it with the form’s users or your organization’s developers to make sure that it contains elements or attributes for all required data values.

Avoiding ad hoc template and document designs It’s a very ...