Miscellaneous Files

Finally, we will briefly consider other files that may be used in some form templates.

Image Files

If you want to use a corporate logo in your form templates, you may add one or more bitmap image files. The bitmap image formats supported by InfoPath 2003 are Windows Enhanced Metafile ( .emf ), Windows Metafile ( .wmf ), JPEG File Interchange format ( .jpg , .jpeg , .jfif , and .jpe ), Portable Network Graphics ( .png ), Windows Bitmap ( .bmp and so on), Graphics Interchange Format ( .gif and .gfa ), as well as several others. One noticeable omission in the supported graphics formats is Scalable Vector Graphics.

When you include a bitmap image, you don't need to include the image in the form template itself, although you can do that if you want. There is an additional option to link to the image file. As with many decisions, there is the tradeoff of developer convenience versus user convenience. If you embed the image in the form template, the image (for example, a logo) is always available for use in the form, even when the user is offline. If the logo changes, updates will potentially need to be made to all your company's InfoPath form templates. Alternatively, if you link to an image, it will be unavailable to users when they are offline.

SCALABLE VECTOR GRAPHICS

Unfortunately, InfoPath 2003 does not support Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Because InfoPath form templates can be used in scenarios such as safety inspections, where animated and interactive SVG graphics could provide additional guidance to users, the absence of SVG functionality in InfoPath 2003 is disappointing.

Custom Task Panes

InfoPath 2003 provides several standard task panes that we used in many examples earlier in the book. In addition, you may optionally provide custom task panes that provide additional user help or other functionality.

InfoPath task panes are XHTML files. If you want to add a custom task pane to a form template, the relevant XHTML file needs to be incorporated in the form template.