Ok… So here’s the story.  I had several InfoPath 2007 forms that I published to a Form template library as Site Content Types and when I was publishing them I exposed several fields as SharePoint Columns (on the 5th screen in the Publishing Wizard) by clicking the Add… button and then picking the fields that I wanted to expose.  I then later came back in and had the need to “Allow users to edit data in this field by…” so I updated this check box for each of the fields… re-published the form….and NOTHING CHANGED!!!!

(Note: you have to be careful not to just “double click” on the fields in the Select a Field or Group window or it will automatically bypass the use of the OK button below (and consequently of the “Allow users to edit data in this field by using a datasheet or properties page” checkbox as well).

So… After Double-checking my settings [and ensuring that the chicken had been sacrificed correctly :) before attempting this update]… I finally figured out what this issue entailed…

Once you publish an InfoPath Form as a  Content Type to SharePoint with “promoted” SharePoint fields, they become Site Columns in the site as a whole and CANNOT be changed at a later point in time to include extra functionality like… Allowing users to edit data in this field…

To remedy this situation you MUST minimally… (and I will warn you up front that this is going to hurt a bit…):

1. Remove the Content Types from the site. (this may entail removing the content types from the document libraries where they are in use,  from the Form Template Library where they were published and also from the Site Actions [menu] > Site Settings > Modify All Site Settings… Site Content Types underneath the Galleries column.
   This is necessary because we cannot remove site columns when they are in use…
2. Remove the columns from the library where they are in use (i.e. where the content types were in use [not the Form Templates library] as they will  become “orphaned” if you skip this step…)
3. Remove the site columns from the Site Actions [menu] > Site Settings > Modify All Site Settings… Select Site columns underneath the Galleries column. locate the Microsoft Office InfoPath section and select the columns one at a time and select Delete for each column.  We MUST destroy these columns from the site before we can recreate them… there is no way that I have found around this issue…
4. Re-publish the InfoPath Forms to the same Form Templates library… and be sure to edit the columns on the 5th Wizard screen to include the “Allow users to edit data in this field by using a datasheet or properties page” Check Box BEFORE publishing the form again. [Note: this should publish as a NEW Content Type as we deleted it previously].
   
5. Now you should have editable SharePoint columns Linked to your InfoPath Forms (i.e. Read\Write access to these InfoPath Form Fields via Site Columns).

Hope this helps!

Jim