Faxes

You may skip this chapter if you have no FAX module installed.

  • Creating a Fax Message
  • Fax numbers
  • Specifying Fax cover Page
  • Viewing Fax Messages

    • Creating a Fax Message

    To create a fax message from CommuniGator, you should create regular text message (with optional embedded pictures and stylised  fonts) and send it to a fax address.

    You may send the same message to several addresses (including E-mail addresses and Fax numbers) at the same time, but in order to make CommuniGate to create a graphical image of your message text, at least one recipient shoud be a fax number.

     Fax Numbers

    Besides digits, phone numbers can include the symbols . (point), ( and ) (parentheses), - (dash) and spaces as separators. These symbols are ignored when the system dials a number.

    The phone numbers can include the uppercase letters, which are converted to the corresponding digits: (800)-WXY-DEFG is a correct number and means the same as 8009993334.

    The modem controlling symbols , (comma), @ (at-sign), ! (exclamation point), w, p, t (lowcase w, p, or t), are described in the Dialer Settings page. These symbols are allowed in phone number address bodies and when the system dials a number via a modem, these symbols are sent to the modem to modify the dialing procedure.
    All other symbols are prohibited in phone numbers.

     Note: When you specify a phone number, always include the area code. If a number is local (i.e. it has the same area code as the code set in the Dialer Settings), the system will remove the area code automatically before dialing.

    To enter an international phone number, use the symbol + (plus), then the country code, then the area code inside that country and then the phone number itself: +77 88 999 5656 is a correct international phone number.
    The system automatically detects the type of the number (local, long distance, international), and adds the proper prefix and postfix (based on the Dialer settings) to dial the number correctly.

    If you want to enter a number that should be used "as is", i.e. if you do not want any prefix or postfix to be added to that number, put the symbol - (dash) in front of the number: -4567. It is useful if your company has an in-house phone system, and you have added the external access code to the Dialer prefixes. In this case to make a call inside the in-house phone system, the number should be dialed without any prefix. If you type the dash sign and the internal phone number: -4567, then only the digits 4567 are dialed, without any prefix added.

    Specifying Fax Cover Page

    The Mailer Options pop-up menu allows you to assign supplementary attributes to a
    message. To specify the cover page to be used when faxing your message, select Fax Cover
    Page in the options pop-up menu and click the icon on the left side of the menu. A dialog box
    appears and displays all cover pages available on the Server:

    After you select one and close the dialog box, the name of the cover page selected appears
    in the field under the pop-up menu.

     Viewing Fax Messages

    After you submit your message to Server, it may take time for FAX module to convert your message text into Fax graphics. Open your Out Box window, you may see how your message being prepared for faxing: it's size is growing. Open the message when it stop growing, you'll see your originat text and embedded graphics you used to compose it. Use "View Part" submenu in Message menu, or use Ctrl-UpArrow /  Ctrl-DownArrow combinations to switch to Fax part.

    The messages received by CommuniGate via a faxmodem contain only Fax part. They appear in your In Box the same as regular messages, double-click them to open:

    When a fax part of a message is dislayed, a pop-up menu appears above a fax page. That menu allows you to select the fax page to view. Also, the Fax menu appears in the menu bar.

    You can use Fax menu to scale a fax page on the screen. The Fax resolution is about 200dpi (dots per inch) while screen resolution is 72dpi, so scaling fax image to 300% provides the most close look.

    If you select Gray Image option in the Fax menu, fax pages will be shown in gray if the fax resolution is higher then the screen resolution. Please note that dislaying  fax pages in gray can be slow on low-end machines.

    If a fax page was received flipped, you can turn it on the screen using Rotate command from the Fax menu.

    You can select some part of a fax page by clicking and dragging. Choose Copy from the Edit menu to copy the selected rectangle. The copied fax image is placed on the Clipboard as graphic s and it can be used in any application.

    Note: Sometimes, a fax page on your screen contains two (or even more) pages of the original document. It happends because the person who has sent you that document inserted the document pages into the fax machine incorrectly, so the fax machine treated them as one long page.

    Station Setting: When you print a fax message, a fax page may appear to be larger than the size of the printer pages you use. Select the Scale Long Faxes in Printing Options to scale long fax pages to fit the printer page size. If this option is not selected, each long fax page is printed on several printer pages.