Windows Vista Annoyances

Faxing

One of Vista’s most spectacular features is its ability to turn your PC’s built-in fax modem into a fax machine. This feature works like a charm, saves all kinds of money on paper and fax cartridges, and may even spare you the expense of buying a physical fax machine.

Faxing in Windows Vista is a much more official feature than it was in Windows XP, where it wasn’t even installed automatically. Now there’s a new program just dedicated to faxing: Windows Fax and Scan.

Sending a fax is even easier on a PC than on a real fax machine; you just use the regular File→Print command, exactly as though you’re making a printout of the onscreen document. When faxes come in, you can opt to have them printed automatically, or you can simply read them on the screen.

Note

The Fax and Scan program is available only in the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista.

Sending a Fax from Any Program

The one big limitation of PC-based faxing is that you can only transmit documents that are, in fact, on the computer. That pretty much rules out faxing notes scribbled on a legal pad, clippings from People magazine, and so on (unless you scan them first).

If you’re still undaunted, the procedure for sending a fax is very easy.

1. Open up whatever document you want to fax. Choose File→Print.

   The Print dialog box appears.

2. Click the Fax icon (or choose Fax from the Name drop-down list, as shown in Figure 11-7), and then click OK or Print.

   Figure 11-7. Top: To send a fax, pretend that you’re printing ...