InfoPath 2010 Person/Group Picker: Need “write in” option

Question

I've placed a person/group picker on a web enabled InfoPath 2010 form. It comes up and allows me to pick names from the farm no problem.

My issue is that I want to be able to write in the name of an individual who may not have an account on the farm / domain yet. The picker is really only being used for tracking purposes and I'd like to have the option to type in any name and have it accepted. As it stands I get the "No exact match was found. Click the item(s) that did not resolve for more options." message. In SharePoint I believe a picker column can be specified that does not have "presence"; is that possible in InfoPath?

I could conceivably embed this field in a hideable section and allow the user to specify "Person without SharePoint account" but I would very much prefer not to do that.

Answer 1

I have similar situation. Form Name "Access Form" with People/group picker. Where I provide additional text box if the user is not resolved using the people picker.

Answer 2

I'd like to have the option to type in any name and have it accepted. As it stands I get the "No exact match was found. Click the item(s) that did not resolve for more options." message. In SharePoint I believe a picker column can be specified that does not have "presence"; is that possible in InfoPath?

I could not create a sharepoint column with a Person or Group Picker that would have accepted any name. Have it been possible you simply could have created it in sharepoint list field pressed Customize Form button on ribbon and checked what is respectively generated in Infopath form.

Are you sure that it is possible in sharepoint and how, I wonder? This is the main objective of this reply

So, beleiving that it is not possible I wanted to give the same answer as already was given