Work with Faxes


Mac OS X lets you send and receive faxes on your Mac, as long as it’s connected to a phone line via a modem. (You can’t send and receive faxes over DSL or cable connections, without using special services.) If your Mac has an internal modem, which all new models do, or if you have an external modem connected to your Mac, you can use this fax function to save time and paper.

Send Faxes from Your Mac

One of the advantages of sending faxes with your Mac is that you don’t have to print them first. When you have a document you want to fax, just select File | Print, and then click Fax. This opens a new dialog (Figure 14-11) that lets you choose your recipient, a subject line, a dialing prefix and layout settings, and a cover page.

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Figure 14-11: The Fax dialog, which lets you choose the recipient for your fax and adjust settings

Most of the settings available in the pop-up menu in the middle of this dialog are the same as those for printing (see earlier in this chapter). There are, however, two additional choices for faxes:

  • Fax Cover Page This lets you set a cover page text. This text, which you enter in the large text field in this dialog, is sent on a cover page before the rest of your document.

  • Modem This lets you choose whether your modem uses tone or pulse dialing, whether its sound is on or off, and whether it should wait for a dial tone before dialing.

Receive Faxes on Your Mac

To receive faxes on your Mac, you must have a modem connected to a phone line, and you must turn on fax reception. Open the System Preferences application by clicking its icon in the Dock or by selecting the Apple Menu | System Preferences. Click the Print & Fax icon to display the Print & Fax preferences. (See Figure 14-12.) The Faxing tab shows the Faxing preferences.

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Figure 14-12: The Faxing tab of the Print & Fax preferences lets you set fax reception settings.

To be able to receive faxes, check Receive Faxes on this Computer. Enter your fax number, the number of the phone line your Mac is connected to. Then select after how many rings your Mac will answer: if your Mac is connected to a line used by a telephone as well, set it to answer after several rings; if it is a dedicated line, used only for faxes, set it to one. If you have an answering machine or voicemail on the same line that picks up after a certain number of rings, you’ll need to set this number to one ring less than the answering machine.

There are three options you can choose for how your Mac handles incoming faxes (you must check at least one of these, but can check any two or all three if you want):

  • Save To You can choose from Shared Faxes, Faxes, or any other folder if you select Other Folder. Faxes received are saved as PDF files, and you can view them, using Preview, or print them out after they are saved. If you choose Shared Faxes, this creates a Faxes folder in the /Users/Shared folder, where all users can access the faxes. If you choose Faxes, this creates a Faxes folder in your home folder; only you can access the faxes received when you are logged in.

  • Email To You can have faxes e-mailed to anyone you choose. This sends the PDF file of the fax to the selected e-mail address.

  • Print on Printer If you want your faxes printed out immediately, select a printer here.




How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther
How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther
ISBN: 007225355X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 171

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