First time at using info path and stuck

As a side line at work I'm trying to improve a process.
Step 1 a form is filled in (word doc manual)
This is then handed over to person 1. Who checks it
Then it goes to manager 1 to copy to a file share and pass it oto a different department.

Records and versioning needs to be kept

I have made an info path for that reflects what the word doc did

Im now stuck, we have share point so that seems a good. Place to handle work flow. But I'm a newbie at this. First time using info path today
Do you know of any simple guides that could help me, have a day off tomorrow would be nice to get somewhere with it.

Essentially how do you read from a data source
How do you right to a data source
How do I ensure that a field has a unique value based on a data source. Ie. Case number

I don't have to use info path or share point just seemed a good choice

So open to suggestions

I'm using info path 2010
Sharrepoint 2007 or 2010 if it's a better match

mhamerAsked: 2011-03-17

Who is Participating?

LVL 15

melli111SharePoint Administrator / DeveloperCommented: 2011-03-17

This site really helped me through it when I first started using InfoPath:

http://www.bizsupportonline.net/

LVL 2

R4incCommented: 2011-03-17

First of all, Sharepoint 2010 is great. Totally worth it if you can use that, especially with InfoPath 2010. When you create the form, you can setup a data connection to the Sharepoint server. You will need to choose how you want the connections to be, but for something simple, you can create a document library to store the form. In this library, when you click add a new item the form will open and the user fills it out. You can then set a workflow to route the document wherever you want it to go. I suggest getting Sharepoint Designer 2010 and looking at that. For reading from a data source, you can use a SQL connection or if you want it simple, you can connect to a Sharepoint list. When you setup the field, you point it at that data connection and it will pick up those values. I am pretty new to InfoPath and SharePoint myself and have mostly learned from Google and other Experts here. Good luck!