The power of InfoPath 2007 integrated into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint: Creating Custom Document Information Panels !

This excellent screencast video steps you through some of the power that comes with SharePoint V3 + Office 2007. It's a twenty-minute instructional screencast that shows you how to create a meta-data rich document library, see how the meta-data is rendered in the Document Information Panel, and then how to customize that panel's content to do some cool stuff via InfoPath. No code!

Commentary:

• Create a content site
• Add extra meta data, site columns, to that content site for the documents you're saving in the new content site.
• Association of a document template with a content type.
• Configuring a content type. The all important "Allow management of content types" option.
• Finally! Opening a new document with the Document Information Panel (a rather unfortunate acronym).
• "Go to Document Information Panel" (!)
• Back on SharePoint, try the "Edit Properties" to see SharePoint view into same data.
• Now, going a little bit further... the custom Document Information Panel via InfoPath!
• SharePoint UI showing you the DIP Settings.
• A little trick?
• "Create new custom template."
• Woof! That's sweet. Now we're in InfoPath and ready to customize the Document Information Panel.
• Now how do you get it back on SharePoint? Hello Publish Wizard. I sure am glad we fill in the defaults for you so that you can do next... to publish.
• Hmm, yes, that's one unique name we choose.
• Later: "edit this template" is the nice special sauce.
• More customization using the power of InfoPath for easy data wrangling. Setting the meta-data "Sender" field to be the same as core property creator.
• "Save" in this case saves you back to the content type library in your site.
• New... wait for it... wow! Kick butt.

If you have Beta2 and SharePoint V3 Beta2 please give it a try and tell us what you think!