No I am not, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to test third
party fax solutions. Most seem to be even worse than Microsoft's. Years ago
WinFax Pro filled this void, but Symantec dropped that ball completely long
ago (without having the simple courtesy to acknowledge that fact).
I suspect the reason that no one has stepped up to this plate is that
everyone is still trying to figure out whether they can still make a profit
from modem faxing software. The need for faxing refuses to die despite all
the predictions to the contrary. But whether it remains high enough for a
developer to profit from it mystifies everyone, Microsoft included. That is
why Microsoft's modem faxing products remain barely functional and totally
separated from (and ignored by) their flagship applications like Office.
My own uneducated opinion is to look for Internet Fax companies to fill this
void. In the US, most users are moving to broadband connections and would
prefer to abandon their analog fax modems and decrepit modem fax software
completely. It never worked well in the first place. They might, however, be
willing to pay a small fee to email their data to an Internet Service who
could do their occasional faxing for them.
Look at the handwriting on the wall in Outlook 2003. As is obvious from this
thread, integration with modem faxing is a joke. But Outlook 2003 has a new
module to allow integration with a number of Internet Fax Services that look
very promising. Whether these services will be robust enough to permit fax
merges and faxing of attachments remains to be seen. I've only tried one of
these services (Venali--because they did all of the legwork to develop
Internet Fax for Outlook 2003). The folks at Venali seem committed to
providing a robust service. Whether their service will include faxing of
various attachments and can accommodate fax merges remains to be seen, but
I've been able to do both--so far (with a few tweaks and workarounds).
NB: Opinions are my own. I do not represent Microsoft in any way
(obviously). Comments and dissenting opinions welcome. --
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Ray B. said:
Thanks for the info. Amazing that one Microsoft product does not
recognize
another! Way ta' go Bill!
The workaround you referenced truly is convoluted and I think I'll pass on
it. Are you aware of any other Fax programs that might provide the
functionality I seek.
Ray
Russ Valentine said:
You missed the fact that Office applications are unaware of and do not
recognize Windows XP Fax. If you really want to, you can use a very
convoluted workaround to merge to email instead. To my knowledge it has
never been tested with an Office version this far outdated:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/services/winxpfax.htm#limitations
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Ray B. said:
I'm running Windows XP and Office 2000 Small Business. I want to fax a
series of letters created in Word, each of which has a unique fax
number,
name, address, etc. I've done mail merge before and everything works
fine
if
I just want to PRINT the documents, but I want to FAX them. So . . . I
loaded Windows XP Fax and thought I was ready to go. BUT - the Fax
option
does not appear in the Merge To drop-down box. My only choices are
Document,
Printer, and Electronic Mail.
What did I miss?
