I've been getting some curly questions around InfoPath of late due to our organisation already using various other products in this space. It's great to compare these feature for feature to get a better understanding of what they do and what things can be done in them.

I found a good post with a video of InfoPath features. It basically describes hooking up a form to a SQL Database Table for querying orders for a customer and updating them. It does illustrate how quickly it is to build this interface up in InfoPath. If you were to do this in ASP.NET or WinForms, you'd take a lot longer than that! It includes validation etc. also which is great!

This webcast, as he discussed, is only the beginning of what InfoPath can do in terms of data connections etc., because you can then go on to submit this to InfoPath Forms Server and hook this into Workflows etc. In the boot camp we looked at submitting this information to a SharePoint list and manipulating data stored in the form. Scenarios around HR Expense Claims and Travel Requests are good example of what InfoPath can handle.

I have been reading around to find out what else it can do and was reading this great article which covers embedding InfoPath forms into Office 2007 and also SharePoint 2007.

The InfoPath blog is a good place to start. Here I found a good article on skinning InfoPath Forms. There's also some great training labs here.

A great added value sell was how you can import existing Word Forms straight into InfoPath. Now I haven't tried this or what smarts it does in the background, but if there's an Enterprise out there who are currently using word forms you've got a base to work with!