Setting Up and Configuring Windows XP Fax

Setting Up and Configuring Windows XP Fax

The fax service isn't automatically installed in Windows XP. To install the fax component:

  1. Open Control Panel, and click Add or Remove Programs.
  2. Click Add/Remove Windows Components. Select the Fax Services check box, and then click Next. The Windows Component Wizard takes care of the rest.

Note:  If you don't have a modem already installed, take care of that now. Make sure the modem is connected to a phone line and the phone line is connected to a working jack. (You'd be surprised how often folks overlook these details.)

After the fax component is installed, the next step is configuring it. You configure the Fax service in the Fax Console, the center for faxing tasks. To configure the Fax Console:

  1. Click Start,
  2. point to All Programs,
  3. point to Accessories,
  4. point to Communications,
  5. point to Fax, and then click Fax Console.

Fax Console

On the Tools menu in Fax Console, click Configure Fax, which starts the Fax Configuration Wizard. Click Next to start configuring your fax information.

On the Sender Information page, include your name or your business name and your fax number. Everything else on the page is optional.

On the Select Device for Sending or Receiving Faxes page, your modem will be selected, unless you have more than one, in which case, select the right one. Specify send and receive options, and whether you'll manually answer incoming faxes or answer automatically when received.

On the Transmitting Subscriber Identification (TSID) and Called Subscriber Identification (CSID) pages, enter your business name and fax number. These fields really matter when you're running special fax routing software. Most software of this kind depends on TSIDs to determine where to direct an incoming fax. 

On the Routing Options page, specify how incoming faxes will be handled. All faxes are stored automatically in the Fax Console, but you can also print a copy or store a copy in a local folder or on your network.

When you want to change or verify any of these settings, simply run the Fax Configuration Wizard again. To open the wizard, on the Tools menu of the Fax Console, click Configure Fax.


Sending Faxes from Your Computer

You can fax a document that's stored on your computer or you can scan a document and fax it by sending to your fax printer. In this section, I'll explain how to fax a document from your computer. If you can print a document, you can fax it.

The Windows XP Fax service uses the Windows Address Book (WAB) as its default address book for fax numbers. When you install Outlook 2000 or Outlook 2002, the fax service switches to the Outlook Address Book (OAB) as its source for fax addresses. So you don't need to maintain two address books—just one will do.

To fax a document stored on your computer:

On the File menu of the document, click Print.

In the Print or Print Setup dialog box, in the Printer name box, click Fax to open the Send Fax Wizard. (When faxing from an Office program, on the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Fax Recipient. An Office Fax Wizard asks for specific information and then hands the process over to the Send Fax Wizard.)

Print Setup dialog box

To supply the recipient's fax number, click Address Book, and select one or more recipients just as if you were sending them an e-mail message.

If you've already set up Dialing Rules, skip ahead. If you haven't, click Dialing Rules. If you need to dial an extra digit to get an outside line, or use a special carrier code, or dial an area code even for local numbers, add those settings here, and then click OK to return to the fax sending.


Very Important: Telephone numbers must be in the canonical form in which a U.S. number would appear as +1 (626) 555-1212. If you use even a slightly different form such as (626) 555-1212 or 1-626-555-1212, the dialing rules won't be applied and the fax transmission will fail.

Select a cover page. Choose from the list or specify no cover page at all. Personally, I forego cover sheets unless I'm sending to a big corporation where it might get lost or the document needs some clarification. 

Specify when the fax should be sent as well as the fax's priority. Priority only matters if you're stacking up a number of faxes to be sent at a particular time. In that case, the order of sending will be determined by the priority you set.

Finally, you're presented with a screen recapping the details of the fax and offering a chance to preview it. If the fax is a multi-page one, you'll be able to preview only the first page.

If you're sending the fax right away, the Fax Monitor, shown below, will start when the dialing does.

Fax Monitor


Faxing Scanned Documents

The second way to send a fax is to scan a document and then send it to your fax printer. The software that came with your scanner can help you set up this kind of fax and send it directly to your fax printer. However, you can also fax from a scanner using the tools in Windows XP:

  1. Open Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, click Scanners and Cameras, and then double-click the icon for your scanner to start the Scanner and Camera Wizard.
  2. On the Choose Scanning Preferences page, click Grayscale picture, and then click Preview to start the scanner.
  3. Provide a name and location for the scanned document.
  4. Open the folder that contains the image file, right-click the image, and then click Print. The Photo Printing Wizard opens.
  5. Select the check box for the image to be faxed.
  6. Select Fax as the printer you want to use.
  7. When you finish the Photo Printing Wizard, the Send Fax Wizard opens and you proceed as described in the procedure for sending a fax from your computer.

Scanner and Camera Wizard


Faxing from Outlook

To send faxes from Outlook, you have to add the Fax Transport Service as an e-mail account. To add Fax Transport Services in Outlook 2002, follow these steps:

  1. On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
  2. Click Add a new e-mail account, and then click Next.
  3. On the Server Type page, click Additional Server Types.
  4. On the next page, Fax Mail Transport is selected. Click Next to finish adding the account.
  5. (For Outlook 2000, on the Tools menu, click Services, and add Fax Mail Transport there.)
  6. To send a fax from Outlook, follow these steps:
  7. On the Standard toolbar, click New.
  8. In the blank message form, on the Standard toolbar, click Accounts, and then click Fax Mail Transport.
  9. Enter your message, click Send, and the fax modem will connect and transmit the fax message.

Troubleshooting Fax Transmissions

Sometimes the fax doesn't make it. When that happens, you'll want to try again. You can specify how many times to retry, how many minutes apart the attempts should be, and request notification of the success or failure of the transmission. These settings are amazingly well hidden, so just follow me:

  1. Open Printers and Faxes, right-click the Fax printer, and then click Properties.
  2. On the Devices tab, click Properties.
  3. On the Send tab, specify the number of times to retry sending a fax and how long the program should wait between each try.
  4. On the Tracking tab, set options for notifications and when the Fax Monitor should open.
  5. On the Tracking tab, there's also a Configure Sound Settings button. No point in going there because it doesn't matter what those settings are. The settings for fax events in Sounds in Control Panel take precedence.

Receiving Faxes

After you've installed and configured the fax services, receiving faxes is as easy as falling off a log. Easier.

When you configured the Fax service, you specified how you wanted the faxes answered and where they should be deposited. By default, the Fax Monitor opens automatically when the modem detects an incoming fax. You can change when and why it opens on the Tracking tab of the Fax Properties dialog box (mentioned in the procedure for troubleshooting fax transmissions).

To view an incoming fax, go to the Fax Console, and click Inbox. Double-click an entry to see the fax in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. Faxes are image files in the TIFF format, so they can't be edited as a text file can be. But you can view, rotate, and perform basic tasks with your fax document without opening an image-editing program. To print a fax, right-click it, and click Print. To send a fax as an e-mail attachment, right-click it, point to Send To, and then click Mail Recipient.