fax software

Hi
Since you are running a business and faxing I am assuming you are using either a DSL or cable connection. If so could you tell me how you hooked up the fax capability?

G4, 933Mhz, 1.5mb Mac OS X (10.4.3)

can anyone recommend a decent fax software
application for the mac.
this needs to fax software that works in a business
environment (who else uses faxes other faxes).

sorry i am frusted with applications such as apple
fax and pagesender.

also the concept of paying $700 for fax software is
crazy as well.

fax software should be able to handle:
multiple users.
fax logs and faxes should be accessible to all
(network or all users on a single mac).
create cover pages (gosh it's crazy to event request
- shouldn't it be standard).
select attachment (group fax documents).
sync with address book.
apple scriptability would be nice as well

I would love to hear about how people are using/not
using fax software on the mac.

I'm with YOU Rashanta as I'm sure you'll be SO PLEASED to hear...

I too have a Problem with FAXING via my spanking new supposedly State of the Art IMAC G5. Seems it cannot do the SIMPLEST darn thing that a PC can do which is to FAX Multiple Page Documents.

The PROBLEM seems to be as you have related it yourself, that there is NO specific FAX 'Program' in the MAC, simply FAX capability via the Built In Modem.
The Windows PCs DO provide a FAX Program that you can access and Set Up to do whatever you need them to do.

To relate my own specific problem, my Lexmark All In One 1100 Printer does indeed Scan Documents and allows for the Scanning of Additional Pages as well. BUT you cannot simply use the Send To Fax command again because the Mac does NOT have a specific Fax Program. You have to send to another App,
most specifically Preview. And Preview as far as I can see so far, is NOT set up to deal with Multiple Page Faxes but simply ONE Page. As a result when I had to send such multiple page Fax to a Client I had no recourse but to make 3 separate Faxes (that's 3 separate Phone Call charges also) to get the 3 pages to them. That is UNACCEPTABLE needless to say.

This is the SIMPLEST thing for a PC to do, WHY is it so HARD for MAC that likes to promote itself as being somehow 'superior'?

And I'm with YOU also in standing up to these SMARMY nerds who want to give you a hard time and put you on the defensive for insisting that your shiny new MAC should be able to handle this for you. You are absolutely right. WHY should we need a now antiquated Fax Machine when this service is accommodated so PERFECTLY in the Windows PCs?

MAC needs to WISE UP on this count. Again as you correctly related, while FAX may have been superceded by EMail there are still a LEGION of Businesses that continue to use FAX because it's the simplest most convenient way of sending HARD COPY, they flop the pages on the Scanner and SEND and it's OFF that simple and fast.

But for sure there HAS to be a Program or something to be ADDED to the Mac that will allow this facility. Let me know when you find it PLEASE.

Shelly Rusten

After reading all the above posts, I am still unclear as to whether or not there is any really good fax software out there for the Mac.

My specific need is: my fax number rings with a distinctive ring which is different from my regular home line. My old fax machine (which recently broke) used to distinguish between my fax line ringing and the regular phone line ringing. I would like to have fax software that does the same (and I do not want to buy another fax machine).

Suggestions (if any) or should I just set this up on my PC and be done with it?

Thanks.

OKAY. In response to your question Kevin, the IMac G5 that I have CAN indeed SEND and RECEIVE Faxes. You can Send a Document that you create in Apple Works by going to File and then Print and to PDF and that box will open up with a List that includes Fax PDF and you click that and the Address Block opens and you put the Phone Number including Area Code and the 1 prefixe and YES the Fax Modem Dials and Connects and Sends the Fax. No Problem.

AND you can ideed Recieve Faxes also. You go to the little Phone/Document in the Top Task Bar and you Click on that and then Fax Preferences and you Click on Receive Fax on this Computer and YES you will GET the Fax. No problem.

Where you run into problems are first of all what I reported about the inability to Send Multiple PAGE Faxes as ONE Fax (One Phone Call Charge) The reason you can't do that as far as I can see is because Mac does not provide a Fax PROGRAM as the PCs do as Standard. With a Fax Program you would be Scanning your Document from Hard Copy and then Sending the finished Scans no matter how many pages to FAX (The Fax Program) and because this IS a Fax Program there would be no problem with sending multiple page faxes whatsoever.

Obviousy MAC either missed the boat on this or they just didn't care because their product was not designed originally for Business use. With the Mac you have to Scan your Document and then Send to another App, Preview being the one recommended.

BUT Preview does NOT seem to recognize Multiple Pages as ONE Fax. That's the problem I had with it. And specifically what the problem is there is that you can't COMMUNICATE with Preview and TELL it that you want to Send Multiple Pages. You can't do that cause it's NOT a Fax Program...

Okay? And YES this DUMB DUMB DUMB and I'm as ****** off about it as all the rest of you who are complaining about it on this Forum and elsewhere.
Rashanta is absolutely right, there are a LEGION of Small Business and the like who continue to use Fax and for them it's easier because they just put the Hard Copy on the Machine and Send it and that's it. It's also important when you want to send Signed Documents.

One of the reasons we don't seem to be getting any positive feedback on this is because there's a lot of smarmy nerds out there who want to give you this crap that you should "Give up Fax, that's OLD technology" or some crap like that. Excuse me, I may agree that it's old technology but Businesses are still USING it and me and Rashanta and others need this service.

And yes Rashanta is absolutely right about NOT wanting to pay extra or to have to hook up a Fax Machine again when in fact ALL PCs can do this as a routine and SIMPLE service. They have Fax Programs built in.

So WHY can't Apple have one built in? NO excuse for it.

And SO I am actually being very generous in coming on here. I was SURE that someone who really knows the Mac was gonna come on here and say, OH YES you CAN do that and HERE'S HOW.

Hasn't happened yet. And trying to discuss this direct with Apple isn't a whole lot of fun either.

In response to your other problem Kevin, about the Fax Ring, I just ran into that one myself also. I signed on for the Manhattan Cable Triple Play option that gives you TV, Roadrunner AND Digital Phone. Everything works great EXCEPT that you cannot leave the Receive Fax turned On or the Fax will beat your Answering Machine to the punch when the Phone Rings. You can get Voice Calls and if you pick up right away you can beat the Receive Fax but that may still come on and cause that static noise.

SO, where that leaves us is that you have to Turn Off the Receive Fax on the MAC so that your Voice Calls and Answering Machine function perfectly as they did originally, and WHEN someone wants to Fax you they have to call you beforehand and let you know they want to Send and then you can click the Receive Fax back on and it comes right in and there's no problem.

But NO, there IS a problem, because ideally you want Everything to work as it should via the Computer and the Net Service, so that as you are relating it Keven, the Computer or the Fax Program (again if there WAS a Fax Program on the Mac) will in fact 'distinguish' a Voice Call from a Fax. (For sure these are totally different signals and the technology does indeed exist to this purpose)

In that way, you could have the features you have now where you can be Online AND get a Voice Call and pick it up if you want OR let it ring through so your Answering Machine can pick it up OR if it's a Fax, that will come through also.

Technically speaking, this is NOT a problem. Is there any Software to deal with all of this?

As another possibility, WHY do we need Answering Machines anymore when we have Computers? WHY couldn't such a set up as the Cable Net and Digital Phone Service, hook into a Program on the Computer that would in fact be an Answering Machine Program, that Records Phone Messages and which you can Dial into from outside to get your Messages?

The answer is there's NO reason at all why they can't provide this.

My suspicion is that no one has bothered to think about it or else they don't see a buck to be made on it. OR if they were to provide this Program, then they'd want to charge you a lot of money for it, even though it's the SIMPLEST thing in the world for them to Set Up and they could afford to GIVE IT TO YOU WITH the **** Computer just as the Windows PCs now give you a genuine Full Function Fax PROGRAM with the cost of the PC.

Apple needs to GET WISE and STOP trying to GOUGE it's customers for MORE money. OR let's put it this way, they can take the **** Garage Band out and give me the Answering Machine Fax Program which I need for my Business which allows me to make MONEY so I can BUY more Apple stuff...

Westbroadway

And ANOTHER injustice Apple just did is that it converted the IMac to the Intel Chips and are now providing Twice the power and Speed for the same money that I haven't even finished paying them for the IMac G5 I just bought this past Summer...

Can anyone spell 'Planned Obsolescence'...

And if there are Apple Execs LISTENING, do remember that GM ended up in the crapper as did a lot of other American Car Manufacturers playing that game. And do remember also that SONY is the Mac of the PC now and they can KICK Apple's butt and sell their product much cheaper and with ALL of this stuff I'm talking about for FREE...

Westbroadway, where did you get the idea that Windows comes with a "genuine Full Function Fax PROGRAM with the cost of the PC."

Windows has a few fax settings within the printer driver menu. You can choose one of three cover sheets and create an address book, but that's about it. Big deal. That's not a 'full function fax program', not in anyone's books.

You CANNOT send multiple pages as one fax document in Windows.

Windows XP Typical Windows Box

TOTALLY WRONG Seagull.

Maybe YOU bought the CHEAPO PC that did not include a Fax Program but as Rashanta and myself and so many others is aware, better Windows PCs, mine being respectable models from Dell, DO indeed porovide a Full Function Fax Program FREE with the Package.

In Fact, the last Dell PC I bought which was indeed a Top of the Line model came with not just ONE but TWO Full Function Fax Programs, one a standard type (but that could INDEEED send Multiple Page Faxes as ONE Fax) and another Program that used a different supposedly even more sophisticated protocol, which I never really availed myself of because the first Program sufficed.

SO Seagull, if YOU didn't get those Programs, I suggest again that you didn't buy the right PC from the right Company. But DELL for sure has provided said FAX Programs going way back a part of their 'package'.

And WHY you or anyone else should be so surprised at that is beyond me, because we are talking about very SIMPLE Programs that require only some added 'lines' to the existing Modem or Word Processing programs, and as you know Windows Computers regularly providing or offering MS WORD which is THE preferred WP of the Business and Professional world and so well valued that even ALL the Mac Lovers I know UNANIMOUSLY recommended that I get myself a copy of MS WORD for MAC, the Apple Works WP provided being also unanimously described as "WORTHLESS!"

So there ya go Seagull, for whatever it's worth to ya.

As yet further interesting input regarding the inadequacies of the Mac relative to FAXING, and this offered to everyone who has followed this thread, as related, my IMAC G5 does INDEED provide Fax capability, you CAN indeed Send as well as Receive Faxes via the steps indicated and easy enough to follow.

And to get to the new point I wish to make, you can also Receive Multiple Page Faxes with no problem whatsoever. I have a few of same still sitting in my Fax Files.

SO, the question here and for sure it's a NO BRAINER, is WHY on earth, Mac did NOT take the very minimal steps to see to it that you could SEND multiple page Faxes also. If everyone is following this and as especially Programmers or the more astute Computer Techies will all agree, ALL it would have taken is the addition of a couple of extra lines to see to it that Premier or whatever other App Mac wanted to 'assign' the task to, would indeed show a Box that inquired as to how many Pages the Fax was to contain and then allow those pages to be so Faxed.

As related, the Printer I'm using, a simple Lexmark 1100, does indeed allow multiple pages to be Scanned as ONE Fax, the problem is that Premier which is the App I was advised to use for such Scanned Hard Copy Faxes, does not seem to recognize same, either again because it lacks the necessary few lines of Code to make that possible OR it lacks the lines that would allow it to recognize the 'instruction' coming from the Printer.

And again to those people I described as "smarmy nerds" for wanting to give Rashanta the business of his 'expecting too much' or how he should 'go back to his Fax Machine', the FIX for this problem would be SIMPLE and therefore NOT requiring any additional costs to be added to the IMAC or other Apple Computer. It's already IN THERE in other words, someone just has to make the effort to Add the Lines of Code and the problem would be SOLVED...

Westbroadway, you claim that " The reason you can't do that as far as I can see is because Mac does not provide a Fax PROGRAM as the PCs do as Standard."

Whatever fax program you got with your computer from Dell, it certainly wasn't "standard". It is simply not part of Windows. It was obviously an add on program to Windows that Dell threw in as part of a package deal. There is no 'full function fax program' on the 'standard' version of Windows itself (home or pro) that allows you to fax multiple documents in one transmission. If there is, you should let the rest of us know about it. Bill Gates would also love to know about it I'm sure, since he never put it in there. You can only fax from within a single document. And you need a separate fax utility program to do anything more.

In this respect, it sounds like Mac OS X and Windows are similar in that each OS comes with standard but limited fax capability.

Please name the menu/file under which a "full function fax program" appears in the Windows operating system itself (not a separate program).

Arguing about Macs vs. PC's is comparing apples to oranges. We hold macs to a higher standard. The fax software is way underpowered. The only good fax software that came with a mac was on the 6400 w/ OS 8. Also came w/ a digital voice answering machine too, software was a bit too powerfull for that machine at the time, would love to see it reissued. I tried FaxSTF, and it was buggy, bloated or just wasn't more functional than the single page faxer that came w/ my 15" PB, I don't remember but it was a while ago. I've been usingthe trusty answering machine/fax, but the lack of quality stock fax software is going to be a liability in the coming tightening of the intel-driven market.

For instance, I have a quantifiably if not qualitatively comparable PC notebook that runs at 1.8 ghz (and feels it compared to my 1.5ghz PB) and while it only has the same type of crappy fax software the mac has. Problems: A- I expect much more out of mac products and OSs, and; B-I paid a **** of alot more for my Mac products and OS's. The PC notebook new was only $800 dollars including win XP and a two year warranty. Where'd my other 1300 bucks go when I spent 2.5K on my 15" PB?

Anyone who argues against the salient fact that the Mac fax functionality when not broken is simply useless cannot possibly be a fax user, period, and might as well stay away from the discussion. If multi-document, non-autofill, logged fax features are indeed buried in the mac software then Apple should improve its documentation. Otherwise they need to improve their software, and have needed to for some time.

Also, I came here looking for a simple discussion about where to find higher end mac software than faxSTF, and I can see that the excessive amature vigilanti-ism and judgementality on this board is a real turn off, and going to force me to look elsewhere for an opinion in the future by making apple discussions no longer my first stop for information on OS X.

Hello,

I too am looking for fax software that will work vi my airport basestation - dial-up )-:
I loved Global Villages old global fax, could fax and recieve on desktop, had voice fax call sensing... do you know if this is available again via my wireless setup or am I going to have to hardwire it?

Thanks

- everybody calm down, please - 🙂

The bug is still present in 10.4.5

I am on a PowerMac G5 fully up to date with 10.4.5 and the autofill / autocomplete issue is here today.

I don't send too many faxes from this machine directly, but whenever I send a fax and type in the send to box for instance the number 2; OS X replaces that 2 with the character S which is the first letter of a contact person for who I have a 207xxxxxxx fax number saved for.

If I type 123 456 7890, the software makes it 1S3 456 7890. The only way to bypass the bug, is to type the number, let autocomplete make the mistakes and go in and edit the characters out.

I am able to send the fax after correcting the # manually.

Very well said. I am not happy with the tone of the discussion either.

The autofill / autocomplete bug as it is still present in 10.4.5 and I also would like Apple to remove the rough edges from the fax module / program. After all these OS X versions it still is not outfitted with common standard functionality. And, yes, I will agree for the premium hardware & yearly OS upgrades ... they should give the fax module some priority over some other gimmicks. What I can't understand is, how this autocomplete bug which apparently started with 10.4 is not fixed yet? And, we are at 10.4.5.

All my macs were able to send and receive faxes all the way back to my power book 160. I have not been able to send or receive more than a few faxes since OSX came around. Rather than waste more hours on the phone with tech support and these forums I just went ahead and bought a fax machine.

The "so-called" auto-complete bug is still very much existant in 10.4.6.

This is NOT a problem with the Address book, it is a problem with Apple's core software -- auto-complete does NOT come from the address book, the Address Book is an application. The Fax application calls upon the auto-complete code in the Core OS to obtain information from the Address Book.

It is quite clear that Apple QA has never tested sending a Fax to a simple phone number -- i.e. someone who has no entry in the Address Book.

This issue has been visible in multiple applications (and actually bugged against them in betas) -- Address Book is the most visible one because it has not been rev'd recently.

The fax application has other significant problems. Not the least of which is the simple fact that it is NOT at all reliable. It is very primitive code which works only under very strict and specific set of conditions. It is not robust, or generalized at all.


iMac 800Mhz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

The OS X fax driver is what is is. A simple piece of software designed to address customer requests for basic fax capabilities. Apple underestimated the importance of keeping fax software alive. This importance is futher demonstrated by the level of passion expressed in these posts.

I used Fax STF products for years with good success. The OS X versions appear to try and meet frequent and business users demands. I really miss a product called Paperport. Coupled with Fax STF and a Mac modem, these products were a great faxing team.

For me the limited fax capabilities of OS X fax (earlier versions) and the loss of Paperport (discontinued in OS X) resulted in the purchase of a cheap fax machine.

I am migrating back to OS X Fax these days as workable solutions seem to be improving. Consider:

Fax log... place this http://127.0.0.1:631/ in your bookmarks of your browser. You will have access to the printing activity, including fax, on your local computer.

Multiple pages: The later versions of Max OS 10 support faxing multiple page faxing.

Combining multiple pages(reordering as well) try combine PDF:

http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/

Want to spend some money?

Fax STF - pro applications http://www.smithmicro.com/

Multipage scanning:

Epson and Fujitsu seem to be doing some good things with their scanners.





G4-400 AGP Mac OS X (10.4.6)