Extract or combine the form files for a form template

A form template is a single file that contains multiple supporting files, such as files that define how controls on the form template should appear, files for graphics that appear on the form template, and programming files that enable custom behaviors in the form template. These supporting files are collectively known as form files. When you design a form template, you can view and work with the form files that make up the form template by extracting and saving those form files to a folder.

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Extract the form files from a form template

Combine the form files into a single form template (.xsn) file

Extract the form files from a form template

1. On the File menu, click Save As Source Files.

2. In the Browse For Folder dialog box, select an existing folder in which to save the form files, or create a new folder.

   InfoPath saves a copy of your form template (.xsn) file as a set of form files in the folder.

Note: When you make changes to your form template after you extract the form files, your changes are saved to the form files in the folder rather than the form template file (.xsn).

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Combine the form files into a single form template (.xsn) file

After you extract a form template's form files and make changes to them, you can combine them back into a single form template file (.xsn) by publishing or saving the form template. After you combine the form files back into a single .xsn file, any changes that you make to the form template in InfoPath will be saved to the .xsn file and not to the form files that you extracted.

1. Open Windows Explorer, and browse to the folder that contains the form files.

2. Right-click Manifest.xsf, and then click Design on the shortcut menu. The form template opens in InfoPath design mode.

3. Do one of the following:

   • To publish your form template, click Publish on the File menu, and then follow the steps in the Publishing Wizard. The source files are published as a single form template file (.xsn).

   • To continue designing your form template, click Save As on the File menu , and then in the Save As dialog box, click Save. The .xsn file type is automatically selected for you in the Save as type box in the Save As dialog box.

     Note: If you see a dialog box message about publishing your form template, click OK to close the dialog box.

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