|
|
|
|
The Microsoft Outlook E-Mail and Fax Guide
Last Updated 7/27/2009 2:10:28 PM
Chapter 13: Sending and Receiving Faxes
Different fax applications vary widely in their complexity, features, and cost — so much so that we can't begin to cover them all. Instead, this chapter covers several different ways to send a fax and explores what you can do with incoming faxes.
The ability to fax documents has become an important part of doing business and managing your personal affairs. Even people who don’t have e-mail addresses may have access to a fax machine, giving you a way to get information to them quickly.
Several different fax programs are compatible with Microsoft Outlook. In some cases, special fax software is installed on your computer and the outgoing faxes are created on your own system. In other situations, a separate fax server takes your documents and turns them into faxes, without the need for specific fax software on your computer. These different fax applications vary widely in their complexity, features and costs — so much so that we can’t begin to cover them all here.
Instead, we cover several different ways to send a fax and explore what you can do with incoming faxes. After some general pointers, we look at a few of the specifics involved in using Microsoft Fax, which is included with Windows 95.
SENDING FAXES
Depending on the fax program you have, you may be able to use any of these methods for sending a fax:
- compose a fax using special software that allows you to pick from available cover pages and set other fax-specific properties
- print from any Windows program to a special fax printer driver
- compose an e-mail message, with or without attached documents, and send it to fax recipients
- scan a document into a format that can be sent as a fax using one of the above methods
In general, you need to have Outlook loaded before you can send a fax. If you invoke one of these methods and Outlook isn’t yet loaded, Outlook usually starts up on its own.
Using Special Fax Software
Microsoft Fax, Personal Fax for Windows NT, and WinFax PRO 8.0 (see Figure 13.1) are all examples of fax software that you install on your own computer. They turn your messages and documents into faxes locally, on your system, rather than sending them off to a separate server for processing. Even when you are using Microsoft Fax or WinFax PRO with a network fax server, the actual creation of the fax is done on your local machine.
|
Special Note: For best results with WinFax PRO 8.0, connect to the http://www.symantec.com site and get the LiveUpdate, which adds greater compatibility with Outlook. WinFax PRO 7.0 and earlier WinFax versions are not compatible with Outlook. |
Typically, sending a fax with special fax software involves five steps, though the order may vary:
- Select one or more addresses from the Address Book or enter one-time addresses.
- Select a cover page and add any notes that you want to appear there.
- Select a time for sending the fax. (Sending during a discounted rate period is a frequent choice.)
- Specify any files that you want to send as part of the fax.
- Create the fax and send it.
When the fax is created, the cover page and any attached documents are converted from their native format into a graphic representation, using standards set for fax transmissions. Then, a call is made to the receiving fax machine. When the receiving machine answers, the transmission begins. If a connection can’t be made, the fax program either tries again or notifies you that there is a problem. Depending on the program, you may also get a notification message when the fax transmission is successful, or you may be able to view a log of fax activities.
Printing to a Fax Printer Driver
Many fax programs recognize that it is not always possible to send a document as an attached file. Therefore, they offer another method that works with any Windows application — printing to a special fax printer driver. Click Start, Settings, Printers to see whether any fax printer drivers are installed on your machine. If you have problems getting a particular type of document to fax as an attachment, send it by printing to the fax printer driver instead.
The steps involved in using a fax printer driver are as follows:
- Print the document to the fax printer driver.
- Select one or more addresses from the Address Book or enter one-time addresses.
- Select a cover page and add any notes that you want to appear there.
- Select a time for sending the fax.
- Create the fax and send it.
Figure 13.2 shows an example using the LanFax printer driver, available at http://www.alcom.com.
Using E-mail Message Methods
Outlook treats a fax as a special type of e-mail message. This means that you can create a fax by composing an e-mail message and attaching files, then sending it to any of the fax addresses in your Address Book. Text that you type in the body of the message usually appears as a cover page note or as a separate page after the cover page.
The steps involved are as follows:
- Compose a new message, including text and file attachments.
- Select one or more addresses from the Address Book or enter one-time addresses.
- Select a cover page and add any notes that you want to appear there.
- Select a time for sending the fax.
- Send the message.
|
Special Note: Not all fax programs can recognize Outlook Contacts fax numbers as fax addresses. You may sometimes need to create an additional e-mail address for a recipient, using a special entry type for your fax software. |
One advantage of creating a fax in this way is that you can mix e-mail and fax addresses when you compose a message.
For many high-end fax applications that connect directly to an Exchange server, the e-mail message method is the normal way of creating a fax. These programs render the cover page and documents into fax format on the separate fax server, rather than on your own computer.
The newest way to send faxes via e-mail is through special gateways on the Internet, many of which can even render documents as faxes. Some of these gateways are commercial services, while others offer free faxing under certain conditions. Useful reviews of the available services can be found at http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/fax-faq.html and http://www.netpower.no/frost/fax.
Creating a Fax with a Scanner
In an office with a traditional fax machine, it’s common to take a stack of existing documents from a file and fax the originals by feeding them through the machine. Can the same thing be done if your only fax machine is your computer? The answer is a definite “yes,” as long as you have a scanner.
In this situation, the scanner does the job of turning the paper documents into images that can be faxed. Depending on your scanner, scanner software, and fax software, you’re likely to be able to use either of these methods:
- scan directly to a fax printer driver
- scan to an .awd (Microsoft Fax), .tif (Tagged Image File Format), or other graphic format that your fax software can handle as a file attachment
|
|