Previewing a Form

Previewing is an important part of the form design process, because it enables you to see the form as the user will see it when filling out the form. To preview your form, select File | Preview Form | Default, which opens a separate window like the one shown in Figure 4-12.

Figure 4-12: A preview of your example form

This preview is exactly what the end user will see, and you can fill out the form in the preview to see exactly how the form will be used.

Previewing a Blank Form

By default, when you preview your form, it will be shown as a blank form, with no data in any of the fields. This can be helpful during the design process, because it allows you to enter information and test any validation criteria you may have added to fields and test buttons, hyperlinks, scripting, and so on.

Previewing a Form with Data

If you would like to see what the form looks like with data (and you don’t want to enter the data yourself), InfoPath also has the option to preview the form using some sample data. To set up this feature, save your form using File | Save and then open the form and enter any data you would like to use for your sample data. Next, select File | Save to save your form data. For this example, call this file sample_employee.xml.

To preview using this data file, select File | Preview | With Data File, which opens the dialog box shown in Figure 4-13 and allows you to select the file you just created with your sample form data.

Figure 4-13: A preview with data

Your form will then be previewed using the data contained within this file, allowing you to see what the form will look like when filled out, without having to enter the data every time yourself.

Tip

You can run into errors using this functionality if you are continually updating your form. Each time you make a change to the form’s structure, fields, and so on, you need to save a new sample data file. Otherwise, you will receive an error when you try to preview a form with a sample data file that doesn’t match the current design.