Quick Link II Fax  (250-3027B) Advanced Fax Functions  Faxback Doc. # 3220

The fax phone list

The Fax Phone list provides access to your personalized fax phonebook for
frequently dialed fax machines.  It can be accessed by choosing FAX PHONE
LIST from the FAX menu and from the SEND FAX INFORMATION dialog box, as
well as directly from the button bar with the FAX LIST button.

Building and editing the list

The FAX PHONE LIST dialog box is comprised of the entry list box and its
function buttons.  To add a number to the Fax Phone List, click the ADD
button.  The FAX PHONE LIST ADD dialog box will appear, providing text
boxes for the NAME, the FAX PHONE NUMBER, and the GROUP identifier, if
desired.  If a fax is normally sent to someone specifically within a
company, a fax can be made to their attention by entering their name in
the ATTENTION field.

The Group identifier allows you to define a collection of fax numbers that
may be dialed by selecting one member of the group.  For example, you
could easily send the same fax to all your customers by giving each person
who is on your list who is a customer the same Group character, and then
simply sending a fax to the group.  Each person would receive the fax.  A
Group identifier may be any character on your keyboard.  Using a Group
identifier is optional.  After entering the information required, click
the OK button to add the entry to the directory.

The EDIT button is used to modify an entry listing.  To select an entry to
edit, select the desired name and number by clicking on it and click EDIT.
The Delete button will remove the selected entry - the INFO button
displays the entire entry completely.

Choosing fax destinations

Once the Fax Phone List has the telephone numbers of your intended fax
recipients, choosing entries to fax to is done with the MARK and MARK
GROUP buttons.  The MARK button is used to select those fax numbers to
which you wish to send a fax - you may send a fax to as many different
numbers as you have entries in the Fax Phone List.  Highlighting the entry
you wish to send the fax to and clicking MARK will mark it.  Entries must
be marked before faxes can be sent to them; a marked entry has an icon 
placed next to it to show its marked status.  MARK GROUP instructs Quick
Link II Fax to select the entire group of fax numbers based on the Group
of the highlighted entry.  Marking instructs Quick Link II Fax to send a
fax document or several documents to the Marked fax numbers when the OK
button is clicked.  The Cancel button will remove the Fax Phone List from
your screen without dialing a remote fax telephone number or recording any
updates made to the fax phone list.

If you are choosing FAX PHONE LIST from the main application and a fax
document has not yet been specified, the SELECT FILES dialog box appears
next to select a document to fax.  It functions exactly as if choosing
SEND FAX.

Fax logs

By choosing VIEW FAX Log from the FAX menu, you can view a log of faxes
that have been sent and received with the SEND LOG and the RECEIVE LOG.
Both logs provide the status of the 200 most recent fax transmissions, and
can be printed by choosing PRINT from the FILE menu.  These logs are also
accessible with the SEND LOG and REC. LOG buttons on the button bar.

Receive fax log

The Receive Fax log provides a line of information for each fax
transmission received.  The log displays the DATE, TIME, DOCUMENT file
name, the number of PAGES received, and the STATUS of the received fax.  A
specific entry can be removed with the REMOVE button; the entire log can
be cleared by clicking REMOVE ALL.

By clicking the INFO button, additional information will be displayed for
the selected fax, including the REMOTE ID of the sending fax, the
RESOLUTION, and the specific ERROR of a failed fax receive, if any.  A fax
can be viewed directly from the log by simply double-clicking it from the
list box.

Send Fax log

Each entry in the Send Fax log represents a transmitted fax from either
the main application or the print driver.  Each entry includes the DATE
and TIME of the transmission, the NAME of the fax called, the PHONE
NUMBER, and the STATUS of the sent fax.  A specific entry can be removed
with the REMOVE button; the entire log can be cleared by clicking REMOVE
ALL.

By clicking the INFO button, additional information will be displayed for
the selected fax, including the RESOLUTION of the sent fax, the DURATION
of the call, and the specific ERROR of a failed fax send, if any.

Converting fax files graphically

All faxes that get received are GRAPHICS, as opposed to TEXT files.  As
such, you can modify a fax by converting it into a common graphic file so
that it can be edited with a PAINT program, such as Windows Paint.  Faxes
that get sent out are graphics, too (your text documents are converted
into a "picture" of the text, so to speak), so you can convert graphic
files to fax easily.  Graphics conversions of faxes can be completed with
the CONVERT DOCUMENTS command, located under the FAX menu, which presents
the sub-menu EXPORT FROM FAX and IMPORT TO FAX.

Exporting a fax into a graphic file

The EXPORT command allows you to convert a fax file (QFX or REC file
formats) into a Paintbrush file (.PCX or .DCX) or one of two TIFF (.TIF)
formats: compressed or uncompressed.  These formats can be imported into
most Windows and paint applications; in general, simple Paint programs
tend to use PCX files, while higher end graphics programs work better with
TIFF files.

To convert a fax file, choose EXPORT, which calls up the EXPORT FILE
dialog box.  With it, select the appropriate directory in the DIRECTORIES
list box and select the fax file you want to convert in the FILES list
box, clicking OK when highlighted.

Selecting a file calls up the EXPORT FAX FILE dialog box, which controls
the aspects of the graphic file the fax is being converted into.  The
filename of the fax can be changed in the EXPORTED FILENAME field.  The
file format (and the three letter file extension for the new file) is
controlled with the EXPORTING TO radio buttons: simply  pick a file format
by clicking on it.  Converting specific pages of multipage faxes can be
controlled by entering a specific range of pages in the PAGE RANGE area,
and the resolution can be manually changed by checking the HIGH RESOLUTION
checkbox.

Clicking OK will start the conversion, and a thermometer will inform you
of the status of the conversion.  The resulting graphic file will be
located in the same directory as the fax file from which it was created.

Importing a graphic into a fax

Ordinarily, graphics can be faxed out by simply printing to the fax/modem
with the Quick Link II Fax print driver from the Windows application that
created the graphic itself, but graphics can also be converted directly
into a fax file from within Quick Link II Fax by choosing Import to Fax.

Since several graphic files can be converted at once, the multiple files
dialog box CONVERT DOCUMENTS - IMPORT TO FAX is used.  Up to 255 files can
be converted at once with this dialog box; files are selected just like
sending a fax.  The graphic formats supported include PC Paintbrush
(.PCX), multiple page Paintbrush (.DCX,), TIFF (.TIF), Windows Bitmap
(.BMP), or MacPaint (.MAC).  Graphic files convert into .QFX fax files.
Files get saved in their original locations.

After selecting the files to send and clicking OK, the document conversion
window will appear during the conversion process that provides status
information on the conversion.

Fax scheduling

When faxing out, there may be occasions when you do not want to fax the
document out immediately, perhaps because you know the recipient's fax
machine is only on at a certain time of the day, or because you want to
fax during the night when telephone rates are lowest.  If this is the
case, you can schedule the fax to send later.

Scheduling a fax is very simple.  Regardless of how you send out a fax,
you can schedule an outgoing fax from the SEND FAX INFORMATION dialog box.
Within it, in the SCHEDULE section, you can set the TIME and DATE when you
want the fax to send.  The document will immediately convert into a QFX
file located in the OUTBOX folder, ready to be faxed out at the scheduled
time.  The date and time on the cover page will be added as the document
is actually sent, reflecting the send time, not the convert time.  If your
computer is not powered on and running Windows at the scheduled time, it
will begin the transfer as soon as Windows is launched.

Sending a fax manually

One of the nicer features of a true fax machine is its ability to send a
fax to someone who is already on the phone with you.  A fax machine owner
could just reach down and press the Send button to start sending a fax
over the line.  Traditionally, fax modems have had a problem with this,
but Quick Link II Fax allows you to do the equivalent.

To send a fax manually, send a fax as you ordinarily would, right up to
the point where a phone number would be entered in the SEND FAX
INFORMATION dialog box.  Instead of keying in a number, check the MANUAL
SEND checkbox and click the SEND FAX button.  Then, Quick Link II Fax will
create a cover page and convert the file (if necessary), and prompt you to
dial.

Viewing the fax schedule

The VIEW FAX SCHEDULE command, accessed from the FAX menu, allows you to
see what fax transmissions are scheduled to be sent and at what date and
time.  Provided information includes DATE, TIME, DESTINATION, PHONE
NUMBER, and the number of LOCATIONS the document will be sent to.  Unless
you are broadcasting to a group, this will read 1.

To remove a selected scheduled transmission, select the desired entry from
the list and click the REMOVE button.  To totally clear the schedule of
faxes, click REMOVE ALL.

Sending the same fax to several destinations

The ability to send out the same fax to several destinations is called
broadcasting, and is fully supported by Quick Link II Fax.  The easiest
way to broadcast a fax is to simply select more than one destination from
the Fax Phone List by highlighting it and clicking the MARK button, which
will put a small icon next to it to indicate that it is on the broadcast
list.  You may mark as many destinations in the Fax Phone List as you want
- clicking OK will lock the destinations in.  Destinations can be unmarked
by highlighting the destination and clicking UN-MARK.  A fax can be sent
to a whole GROUP quickly by selecting a member of a Group and clicking on
MARK GROUP.  Clicking UN-MARK GROUP will unmark them all.  Group
broadcasting is the main reason to use the Group field in the phone list.

When combined with scheduling, it is easy to send literally hundreds of
faxes at night; just enter a DATE and TIME in the SEND FAX INFORMATION
dialog box.

The Fax Manager

The Fax Manager is in charge of monitoring the modem and COM port for
sending faxes, answering incoming calls, and identifying calls as either
fax, voice, or data.  When running, the Fax Manager is either a minimized
icon at the bottom of the desktop, or maximized and displaying its status.
It can be loaded by double-clicking the Fax Manager icon in the Windows
Program Manager or by choosing LOAD FAX MANAGER from the Quick Link II Fax
menu.

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