Faxing with a laptop
By Charles Miller

My friend Robin was surprised when I told her that her new laptop computer could be used as a fax (short for facsimile, from the Latin fac simile, “make similar”). The fact of the matter is that almost all recent laptops, and a large number of desktop computers with modems, include fax capability. The fact that most of the owners of these computers do not know this is an indication of how few people actually read their instruction books.

The explosive growth of fax machine sales and usage in the seventies just was not sustainable. Email did not exactly bring about the demise of the fax machine, but has come close. This is undoubtedly why a lot of people are unaware they have a fax.

If your computer has fax capability, it is a very simple matter to use it. Click on Start/Settings/Control Panel then double-click on the “Printers and Faxes” icon. In this window you should find a “Fax” icon. If it is there, you are ready to connect a phone line to your computer and send or receive a fax.

If there is no “Fax” icon, it is usually easy enough to add it by going to the Control Panel. Double-click on the “Add or Remove Programs” icon and in the left sidebar click on “Add/Remove Windows Components.” Click on the [Components] button then in the window that appears next you should see “Fax Services.” Put a check mark in the box next to “Fax Services” and click on [Next] to install, then [Finish]. This should work so long as your hardware has fax capability.

It is easy to send a fax from any Windows application: Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, Photoshop, etc. Simply click on File/Print and in the “Print” window look for the area usually labeled “Select Printer.” The default icon will be your regular printer, so scroll around until you find the “Fax” icon and choose that.

Now, to send a fax you start the process by clicking on [Print] because you are about to print, not on your printer, but on the recipient’s fax machine. The philosophy is simple here; you are sending your print job down the phone cable rather than the cable connected to your printer.

Windows will start its “Fax Wizard” to guide you through the process. The first time the program is used it will ask you for your name and phone number as you want it to appear at the top of the fax.

Next the program will ask you for the name and fax number of the recipient. If you plan to fax to this number again, you can save the information in an address book for future reuse.

Using this procedure, you can fax anything you are able to print on your local printer. If you own a scanner, this means you can scan documents with a signature, then “print” the scanned document to the fax. This is a multistep process, but less expensive than buying a fax machine and using it only occasionally.

To complete the picture, your computer can also be used to receive faxes. Go back to the Control Panel, then double-click on the “Printers and Faxes” icon. Double-click on the “Fax” icon to start the “Fax Console.” When you are ready to receive an incoming fax, click on “File/Receive a fax now” to have the computer answer.

Once you have received a fax, you can view it in the Fax Console and print it if you wish.

Personally, I have found all the extra steps involved in sending and receiving faxes using my computer to be inconvenient for frequent usage, but for infrequent faxing it sure beats buying a fax machine.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.