Quick Link II Fax (250-3027B) Advanced Fax Functions Faxback Doc. # 3233 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 Fax Dialer dialog box, as well as directly from the keyboard with the ALT-T key combination. 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 Entry 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 - the cases must also match (A group with a "B" identifier is different than one with a ("b"). Using a Group identifier is optional. After entering the information required, click the OK button to add the entry to the directory, or CANCEL to undo. The EDIT button is used to modify an existing entry listing. To select an entry to edit, highlight the desired name and number and click Edit; you can move from text box to text box with the TAB key and change what you want. The SORT button allows you to sort your Fax Phone List either alphabetically, by Group, or by phone number. The REMOVE button will remove the selected entry. Choosing fax destinations Once the Fax Phone List has the telephone numbers of your intended fax recipients, choosing the entries to fax to is done with the MARK button. 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 a checkmark placed next to it to show its marked status. If you mark an entry that is in a Group, Quick Link II Fax asks you if you want to select the entire group of fax numbers to fax to based on the Group of the highlighted Entry. Clicking CANCEL will mark only the selected entry; clicking OK marks the whole Group. Marking instructs Quick Link II Fax to send a fax document or several documents to the Marked fax numbers when the SEND 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 FAX DOCUMENT CONVERSION 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 250 most recent fax transmissions. 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. Clicking OK returns you to the program. By clicking the INFO button, additional information will be displayed for the selected fax, including the REMOTE ID of the sending fax, the RESOLUTION, the BAUD rate, and the specific Error of a failed fax receive, if any, in the STATUS line. Send fax log Each entry in the SEND FAX LOG represents a transmitted fax from either the main application or the FastFax. Each Entry includes the DATE and TIME of the transmission, the DESTINATION, 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. Clicking OK returns you to the program. By clicking the INFO button, additional information will be displayed for the selected fax, including the DOCUMENT name, the RESOLUTION of the sent fax, the DURATION of the call, and the specific Error of a failed fax send, if any in the STATUS line. Converting fax files graphically All faxes that get received are GRAPHICS, as opposed to TEXT files. As such, you can modify a received fax by converting it into a standard graphic file so that it can be edited with a Paint program, such as Windows Paint or PC Paintbrush. Faxes that get sent out are graphics, too (your text documents are converted into a graphic "picture" of the text, so to speak), so you can convert graphic files to fax easily, too. Graphics conversions of faxes can be completed with the CONVERT DOCUMENTS command, located under the FAX menu, which presents the sub-menu FAX OUT and EXPORT. 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 a TIFF (.TIF) file. These formats can be imported into most Graphics 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 FAX dialog box. With it, double-click the appropriate file in the file List Box or type the file's name in the FILE NAME Text box, clicking OK when finished. Selecting a file calls up the second EXPORT FAX dialog box, which controls the aspects of the graphic file the fax is being converted into. The filename of the converted fax can be changed in the FILE text box. The file format (and the three letter file extension for the new file) is controlled with the Exporting TO radio buttons. Converting specific pages of multipage faxes can be controlled by entering a specific range of pages in the PAGE Range area. Clicking EXPORT starts the conversion, and a Status bar 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 (normally C:\QL2FAX). The CANCEL discontinues the conversion process. Importing a graphic into a fax Normally, graphics can be faxed out by simply using FastFax from within the application that created the graphic itself, but graphics can also be converted directly into a fax file (QFX) from within Quick Link II Fax by choosing FAX OUT from beneath CONVERT DOCUMENTS. Since several graphic files can be converted at once, the select multiple files dialog box FAX DOCUMENT CONVERSION 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), LaserJet print files (.PCL), Image files (.IMG), and CUT (.CUT) files. Graphic files convert into .QFX fax files. Files get saved in their original locations on your hard drive. 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/Background fax transmissions 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 your faxes to send later. Scheduling a fax is very simple. When sending a fax from within the Quick Link II Fax main application, you can schedule an outgoing fax from the SEND FAX INFORMATION dialog box. Within it, in the SEND FAX section, you can set whether or not a fax is set to be sent NOW or SCHEDULED. If Scheduled, the time of the fax send is set by entering the new time (up to 24 hours in advance) in the time text boxes and selecting AM or PM. Clicking OK locks in the Scheduled send - the document will immediately convert into a QFX file located in the Quick Link II Fax install directory, 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 RECFAX is not loaded at the scheduled time, the fax will not send. However, if after the appointed time you do load RECFAX into memory, the Scheduled fax will start transmitting. (As per Chapter 12, you could also type SNDFAX /IDLE at the command line and the Scheduled fax would send, but you would not activate the receiving module. Faxes can be Scheduled from FastFax too - simply click the SCHEDULE button on the FastFax dialog box and set the time. When you print to the LASERJET II, the document will convert immediately, but not be sent until the time you set. All Scheduled faxes get sent in the BACKGROUND, unlike when you send them immediately from within the Main Application (FastFax always sends in the background unless set otherwise). Therefore, if you want to send faxes in the background, Schedule them, even if you set the time one minute ahead. 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 (Refer to the next section), 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 MARK again. A fax can be sent to a whole Group quickly by selecting a member of a Group and clicking on MARK, and confirming the Group send. Clicking MARK again 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 the TIME in the Send Fax Information dialog box. Manual fax receives Occasionally, you may want to start receiving a fax from someone who is already on the telephone with you, or you are connected to a fax-back service which will start sending you faxes after you press some touch- tones on your phone. If you were using a regular fax machine, you would probably just press the "Receive" button to start receiving the fax. Quick Link II fax can accommodate you in these situations. When RECFAX is loaded into memory, there is a Hotkey with acts like a Receive button: ALT-; (that's the ALT key and the semi-colon key pressed together). If you press these keys and you do not hear your fax/modem pick up the line and start sending "Receive Fax tones", RECFAX is not loaded into memory. Note: not all fax/modems support the manual receive feature. Fax setup options The commands and options that customize your faxing features and abilities that are accessible under the Setup menu are covered in this section. Send fax setup The SEND FAX SETUP dialog box allows you to define standard information to be used during fax transmissions. The Send Fax Setup dialog box contains two sections; CONVERSION OPTIONS and CONTROL OPTIONS. File Conversion Options The first check box tells Quick Link II Fax to CENTER THE TEXT OR GRAPHIC on the fax page horizontally when converting, otherwise a 1 inch left margin is used; this option may not be accessed when using FastFax, since the page is sometimes determined by your DOS application. The second option is to allow you to change between Normal resolution and Fine/High RESOLUTION fax modes when sending from within Quick Link II Fax - normal is the default resolution when this option is not selected. With normal resolution, Quick Link II Fax doubles the scaling on the vertical axis to allow for the differing resolution between the computer graphics standards and fax standards. This scaling is not needed for fine/high resolution. At document conversion time, Quick Link II Fax will look to see which resolution has been selected and perform any scaling necessary. The next check box in this section, FULL PAGE TEXT/GRAPHICS, instructs Quick Link II Fax to force the page length specified in page layout, even if this results in blank space on a page. Otherwise, it will be length of the text you are sending. This option may also not apply when using FastFax. The Page Layout settings allow you to specify the number of TEXT LINES PER PAGE, the WIDTH OF TABS (in number of characters), and the TOP AND BOTTOM MARGINS (in text lines). These options are used at fax conversion time. Control Options The second section of the Send Fax Setup dialog box provides fax transmission control options. The first check box, INCLUDE COVER PAGE, provides you with the option to include a cover page with each fax transmission. Failure to select this option means that you cannot send a cover page; therefore, the default is On. The DELETE QFX FILES AFTER SEND checkbox instructs Quick Link II Fax to delete the .QFX file after successful transmission. This can save a good deal of disk space. The DEDICATE CPU DURING SEND CHECKBOX tells Quick Link II Fax to force the sending of fax transmissions to the foreground and in doing so dedicate your computer until the completion of the transmission. Any applications running in the foreground at the time a fax transmission occurs would be temporarily halted until the completion of the send. The default for this option is off. You may find that it is necessary to turn this option on if you are running disk access intensive applications in the foreground, or you have an older or slower PC. The USE RTS/CTS FLOW CONTROL checkbox tells what flow control to use when sending a fax. The default is RTS/CTS - if not checked, Xon/Xoff flow control will be used. This is provided for those modems that do not support RTS/CTS flow control. The NUMBER OF REDIAL attempts text box allows you to specify how many times to redial a busy fax machine before logging it as busy in the Send Fax Log. The SECONDS BETWEEN BUSY REDIAL text box specifies the number of seconds to wait before attempting to redial a busy fax machine. The DIAL TIME-OUT IN SECONDS text box specifies the number of seconds to wait before redialing a number when the modem has not responded to the dial command in the allocated number of seconds. This feature is very useful when calling foreign locations. All three of these options affect the foreground and background sending of faxes. Clicking SAVE saves these settings for all future sessions; OK closes the dialog box and puts the settings into effect immediately. CANCEL will close the dialog box and ignore the new settings. Receive fax setup The RECEIVE FAX SETUP dialog box allows you to define standard information to be used during the receiving of fax transmissions. The FAX ID STRING text box allows you to specify your Fax ID. This string is limited to 19 characters in length. The Fax ID is an identifier to the remote fax machine or fax/modem, and often appears in the sending fax machine's status window. Common ID's include telephone numbers, names, and business names. Note that some older fax machines must sense a Fax ID in all uppercase letters. The PATH FOR RECEIVED FAXES text box allows you to change where your incoming fax files will be saved. This setting defaults to the Quick Link II Fax install directory, normally C:\QL2FAX. The DEDICATE CPU WHILE RECEIVING A FAX check box tells RECFAX to force the receiving of fax transmissions to the foreground and in doing so dedicate your computer until the completion of the transmission. Any applications running in the foreground at the time an incoming fax transmission occurs would be temporarily halted until the completion of the receive. The default for this option is off; if you tend to run many disk intensive DOS applications or you have an older or slower PC, you may want to turn this option on. The bottom half of the Receive Fax Setup dialog box provides special control over the loading and unloading of RECFAX, the Receive Fax background application. The first option NONE is the default and assumes you have loaded RECFAX prior to running Quick Link II Fax, or that you don't want to. The second option instructs Quick Link II Fax to unload RECFAX prior to loading itself and reload RECFAX upon quitting Quick Link II Fax. Remember, if RECFAX is not loaded, you cannot receive an incoming fax or send a fax in the background. Clicking SAVE saves these setting for all future sessions; OK closes the dialog box and puts the settings into effect immediately. CANCEL will close the dialog box and ignore the new settings. Cover page setup The COVER PAGE SETUP dialog box provides you with text boxes to be used for entering information about you and your company for the fax page headers and fax cover page. Each fax page sent with Quick Link II Fax (excluding the cover page) will include a page header with the Company name, date, time and page # of the fax, assuming that information has been entered in the COMPANY NAME text box. Quick Link II Fax will automatically create and send a cover page at the front of each fax transmission if the INCLUDE COVER PAGE option is checked on the SEND FAX SETUP dialog box. The COMPANY NAME is also placed at the top of the cover page and the Fax From name and phone number shown on the cover page default to the entries in the FAX FROM and FAX NUMBER text boxes. The VOICE contact number is also included on the cover page. If you wish to include a COVER PAGE GRAPHIC such as a company logo, enter its complete pathname or click the SELECTED button. A file selection box will appear asking you for the name of the graphic logo or image file. This file can be either a black and white TIF or PCX file or Monochrome Bitmap file (BMP) with a resolution no greater than 200 DPI. Once you select the file, the name will appear next to the Cover Page Graphic field. When you press OK, a conversion box will appear while the selected file is converted to a form usable as your cover page graphic. Once this is done, the graphic will be at the top of each cover page you fax out. Clicking SAVE saves these settings for all future sessions; OK closes the dialog box and puts the settings into effect immediately. CANCEL will close the dialog box and ignore the new settings. PCL font setup The PCL FONT SETUP dialog box allows you to specify the default font to be used for PCL file conversion by Quick Link II Fax and FastFax (in some cases, depending on the printing DOS application). This is the font that will be used if the application that created the PCL 4 file does not specify a font. You can also define two custom fonts that can control what the output will look like. If you highlight one of the user defined fonts, you can click EDIT to enter your own printer commands. Consult your HP LaserJet II manual for the desired results. The first checkbox, USE SELECTED DEFAULT FONT, allows you to turn on and off the default font. If no font is specified, a Courier 12 point font will be used for text. This font will only be used if the document you are printing has not specified a font and has not issued a printer reset command. The second check box, TREAT TEXT FILES AS PCL FILES, allows you to convert any ASCII text document and have LaserJet results. When selecting a text document to fax or view, instead of the file type of TEXT, PCL is used. (br/all-11/4/94)