Merge multiple InfoPath forms

InfoPath Forms Services is a server technology, available in Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, that enables users to fill out Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 forms by using a Web browser instead of, or in addition to, the Office InfoPath 2007 client program. This technology allows wider access to forms than was possible with previous versions of Microsoft Office InfoPath.

This article explains how to merge Office InfoPath 2007 forms on a server running InfoPath Forms Services.

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Overview

Merge multiple InfoPath forms in a library

Overview

A library is a location on a site where you can create, collect, update, and manage files with team members. Each library displays a list of files and key information about the files, which helps people to use the files to work together.

By storing InfoPath forms in a library, you can share and track the forms easily. For example, you can create a library for your team's status report forms. If the form template designer enabled the form merging option for the form template, you can also merge the forms in a library. Form merging allows users to consolidate the data from many different forms that are based on the same form template. Merging the form data is useful if you want to compare or summarize the data from several forms. For example, a manager whose team fills out a weekly status report form can merge the data from several forms into a single summary form for his or her manager. The data in the original forms is not deleted when you merge the forms. Your users can still see their original data by opening each form individually.

To merge the forms in a library, you use the Merge Documents command on the View menu for that library. This command is added to the View menu for a document library when the form template designer publishes a form template to a new library from Microsoft Office InfoPath. The command is also added when a site content type that supports form merging is added to an existing library.

When the Merge Documents command is available, you can select the files that you want to merge without opening any of the files. When you merge InfoPath forms by using the Merge Documents command, InfoPath opens to display a new form that contains the merged data from the selected forms. The new form opens in InfoPath even if the forms are based on a browser-enabled form template. If you save the new form to the same library as the original forms, it will be browser-enabled like the other forms in that library.

Notes: 

• To ensure that a browser-enabled form template always opens in the browser, you must click Display as a Web page on the Advanced Settings page for the library.

• By default, when multiple forms are merged into a single form, the only data that is merged is the data that is contained in a repeating table or a repeating section, or data that is associated with a list control or a rich-text box control. However, when you design the form template, you can specify that the data in other types of controls should also be merged.

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Merge multiple InfoPath forms in a library

To merge multiple forms that are stored in a document library, do the following:

1. If the library is not already open, click its name on the Quick Launch.

   If the name of your library does not appear, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of your library.

2. On the View menu , click Merge Documents.

3. In the Merge column, select the check boxes next to the forms that you want to merge.

4. On the list toolbar, click Merge Selected Documents.

   InfoPath opens with a new form that is based on the same form template and contains the merged data.

   Note: When a user merges InfoPath e-mail forms, the merged data from repeating controls may contain a blank row. For example, if a user merges three expense report forms that each contain a single row of expenses in a repeating table, the repeating table in the InfoPath e-mail form that contains merged data may contain a blank row, followed by the three rows of data from each of the other InfoPath e-mail forms.

5. To save the form that contains the merged data, on the File menu, click Save As, browse to the location where you want to save the form, and then click Save.

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