7.5. Faxing with Word
Think of faxing a document as a form of long-distance printing.
You tell Word to print a document, and it sends the pages over the
phone lines and prints it out on your friend's fax machine. You
need to have a fax modem in your computer, and the person on the
other end needs a fax machine (see the box in Section 7.6). Other
than that, it's a lot like printing. Here are the steps:
-
With your document
open
in Word, press Ctrl+P or choose
Office button
Print
.
The Print box, as shown in Figure 7-6, opens.
-
Use the drop-down menu at the top of the Print box to
select your fax modem as the printer, and then click OK to start
the Send Fax Wizard
.
The Print box
closes
and the Send Fax Wizard opens (Figure
7-12). The Send Fax Wizard consists of several dialog boxes. The
first box is stunningly useless. It does nothing but welcome you to
the Send Fax Wizard and make you click the Next button an extra
time. The
next
screen is more functional. You use it to tell your
computer where to send the fax.
|
Figure 7-12.
The Send Fax Wizard walks you through
the process of addressing and sending your fax. You start by
entering
names
and fax
numbers
or choosing recipients from your
Windows address book.
|
|
-
Enter names (optional) and fax numbers into the Send Fax
Wizard
.
You can click the Address Book button to choose a
name
and fax
number from your Outlook address book, or you can type into the
"To" and "Fax number" text boxes. Click Add to add recipients to
the list at the bottom. When your list is complete, click Next.
-
Choose whether or not to include a cover page
.
If you
turn
on the cover page checkbox, the wizard prompts you
for a subject and a note. The wizard automatically fills in details
that Word collected when you installed the program, such as your
name and contact
info
. If you need to, you can review and change
those details by clicking the Sender Information button at right.
When you're done with the details about the cover page, click
Next.
-
Use the next wizard screen to schedule your
fax
.
You have three options for scheduling. You can send it now, or
you can choose to send it when discount rates apply. Last but not
least, you can enter a specific
hour
and minute. When you've
scheduled your fax delivery, click Next.
-
Check the details and preview the fax, and then click the
Finish button to send it
.
The last box of the Send Fax Wizard gives you one last chance to
review your fax recipients and to preview the fax by clicking the
Preview Fax button (Figure 7-13). A viewer pops up where you can
inspect your fax page by page before you send it. When you're
certain that everything is okay, click Finish to send your fax on
its way.
|
Figure 7-13.
The last step in the Send Fax Wizard
gives you a chance to preview your fax and
double-check
the names
and numbers of the recipients.
|
|
UP TO SPEED
Fax Modem vs. Fax Machine
|
|
In the days before everyone used email, fax machines took the
world by
storm
. At first, people asked if you had a fax, and then
they just asked for your fax number. If you don't have a fax
machine, a computer with a fax modem is a pretty good substitute.
Any document that you can print, you can send as a fax. Today, most
modems also include the smarts to send a fax, and you can get one
for only or so.
To see whether your computer has a fax modem, go to Start
Control Panel
Printers and Faxes.
When the control panel opens, youll see Fax listed, but that
doesn't
necessarily
mean you have a fax modem installed. In the
list, rightclick the word Fax, and then choose Properties from the
shortcut menu to open the Fax Properties box.
Last, but not least, click the Devices tab. If your computer can
send a fax, you'll see the name of the fax modem listed in the
Devices panel.
You can receive faxes with a fax modem too, but if you plan on
receiving a lot of faxes, you may want to get a phone line
specifically
for fax trafficotherwise your
friends
are likely to be
greeted with a fax screech when they call. If you want the complete
capabilities of a fax machine, then you need to add a scanner to
your setup. Then you can scan newspaper articles, comic
strips
, and
other important documents and fax them to colleagues.
|
|