I see Peter posted some screenshots of the new InfoPath preview. If you have a Tablet PC and contemplate filling out forms, the InfoPath Preview is a must-check-out program.
What makes InfoPath so intriguing is its support of ink. As Peter’s screenshots illustrate, an automatically-resizing window pops up when you’re using a stylus so you can handwrite in fields and have the text automatically recognized.
A couple thoughts came to mind when using InfoPath that I wanted to share…Oh, by the way, this is the most I’ve ever used InfoPath, so maybe all these things have fixes that I’m not aware of or they wouldn’t really pan out after further thinking, but here goes….
I’d like the forms to be scalable. For instance, all the sample forms are fairly tiny on my Tablet. It’s supposed to technically not a problem with the pen since InfoPath is designed so you can ink in larger areas than the edit field itself. However, it’s a bit disconcerting. Maybe I’d get used to it. But I keep worrying that I’m going to click on the wrong field when the fields are tightly spaced together. What I’d like to be able to do is scale the form a bit–kind of like how Journal can scale a page. I tried scaling a form by hand, but it was time consuming since I had to go in and change fonts all over the place. Call me silly. Maybe it’s just that I have a longing for Longhorn and its vector graphics 🙂 I can’t wait!
Checkboxes are OK, but tapping on a checkbox requires just a tad more precision on a tiny tablet than lazy me wants sometimes. How about supporting the ability to circle or scribble on checkboxes or radio buttons with ink? I haven’t experimented with this, but it seems like a scribble is slightly more deliberate and easier to do than tapping with just the right pressure. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s something I’ve noticed. Watch someone try to tap a box on a Tablet PC and you’ll often see them have to try a couple times to get it right–sometimes due to errors in the digitizer, sometimes due to insufficient pressure, sometimes due to parallax, and sometimes due to inaccurate positioning.
The popup ink window for edit fields is nice, but I wonder how redundant it will be in light of Lonestar–which includes a vastly superior although similar input metaphor. My concern is that the currently employed ink edit window in InfoPath doesn’t support editing. I’m guessing once the Lonestar code permeates the Tablet community, that everyone will expect it. But then I guess you could simply use the Lonestar TIP instead, although I like the tightly integrated ink window. It seems more natural. Seems like there’s room for a TIP mode that appears like that in InfoPath, but that contains editing features.
And while on the ink fields, here are a couple other thoughts. The recognition occurs after a or so second after the recognition stops. This is OK, but most of the time when I’m done, I’d really like the recognition to occur right then. The delay slows me down too much when filling out a form. Yeah, I know there’s a checkbox off to the lower-right that I can click on, but I’m so cognitively lazy that I don’t bother moving my hand over to try to tap precisely on it. So what about supporting an exit direction or something on the window? I’m not sure what it would be exactly, but I’m thinking that if the pen stops moving maybe the recognition starts or maybe if the pen moves off the side of the window in a certain direction the recognition initiates? Or maybe we need a “pen away” event that we can use to invoke recognition? Seems like something is missing.
Partially because of the ink delay another issue pops up. I’d like to be able to go on to the next field even when the current edit window is up. Right now all the ink is routed to the original edit field that the ink was in. I know I’m suggesting a potentially semantic mess, but if the ink window stays up too long, I want to keep inking.
Oh, and one more dream feature. I’d like the ink to be kept around in the edit field. I can imagine many situations where the recognition fails, but that fact isn’t noticed right away. If there could be a way for the user to get back to the original ink so you could see what was intended, this would be a nice feature. I guess for this matter, maybe just keeping everything visually in ink would be great too.
On the “I love it” side of things, I’m already addicted to the scratch out gesture in the edit fields. Well done.
And lastly, as a developer I’m wondering about the possibility of “getting at” the ink in an ink picture field so I can add recognition (such as shape recognition). I guess I’d be limited to pumping ink back into the picture window. Hmmm. I don’t know if accessing the ink is possible or practical, but it seems like it could lead to some very interesting applications indeed. Is there a sample somewhere? I’d like to see one. Maybe this calls for some third-party form components? For instance, what about plug-in controls to create a classroom seating chart, for instance? Or for that matter, especially once you have a freeform pen, why does a form have to be all edit fields and other stock Windows controls? What about supporting hotspots on bitmaps? Seems like there’s great potential here.
I hope these comments help the InfoPath team. The product looks very, very promising–especially for anyone dealing with forms.
In fact, I wonder who might benefit more: the Tablet PC from the new release of InfoPath or InfoPath from the existence of the Tablet PC?