Fax preferences

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jonathan Finney
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Jonathan Finney

I set-up faxing on my wife's laptop the other day and see that my regional
preferences have not been observed. Page size was set to US Letter and the
date appears in the header in US format.

The page size was easily changed but I can't find anywhere to set the date
to UK format or any way to disable the fax header.

Is this just another example of Microsoft's misunderstanding of what
limitations are acceptable in an essential service?
 
Jonathan said:
I set-up faxing on my wife's laptop the other day and see that my regional
preferences have not been observed. Page size was set to US Letter and the
date appears in the header in US format.

The page size was easily changed but I can't find anywhere to set the date
to UK format or any way to disable the fax header.

Is this just another example of Microsoft's misunderstanding of what
limitations are acceptable in an essential service?
Click to expand...

I don't have the WinXP fax service installed on the work station where I
am right now, so I can't look at the various options in the "Fax
Configuration Wizard" (which I assume you know is available from the Fax
Console "Tools" menu). I can tell you however, that IMHO, based on lots
of posts in this NG, that Microsoft apparently does not share your view
that faxing is an "essential service." WinXP fax service has very
limited functionality and is very particular with regard to what modems
it works with. You should count yourself lucky if you can send and
receive faxes at all -- with or without headers.

With respect to the date, does it display in Euro-format elsewhere?
That is, check the settings in Control Panel > Regional and Language
Options > Standards and formats.
 
Thanks Lem.

The wizard is very basic and doesn't cover the option I refer to.

It's a pity that the faxing is treated as unimportant by MS. I hardly use
it myself and do most of my business by email. However, there are still an
enormous number of businesses that rely on it and a fax still has more legal
clout than an emailed scan, so I have to regard it as a necessary evil.

Years of using WinFax (nightmare!) has left me yearning for the day when I
upgraded our system to XP so I could use the Windows fax service that
integrates nicely with Outlook. Now it turns out that this is a half-baked
affair with more limitations than advantages. I despair!

This is the only instance I've seen of the date format not displaying in
accordance with the regional settings.

Heard of any other programs that might provide a simple and reliable fax
solution?
 
Jonathan said:
Thanks Lem.

The wizard is very basic and doesn't cover the option I refer to.

It's a pity that the faxing is treated as unimportant by MS. I hardly use
it myself and do most of my business by email. However, there are still an
enormous number of businesses that rely on it and a fax still has more legal
clout than an emailed scan, so I have to regard it as a necessary evil.

Years of using WinFax (nightmare!) has left me yearning for the day when I
upgraded our system to XP so I could use the Windows fax service that
integrates nicely with Outlook. Now it turns out that this is a half-baked
affair with more limitations than advantages. I despair!

This is the only instance I've seen of the date format not displaying in
accordance with the regional settings.

Heard of any other programs that might provide a simple and reliable fax
solution?
Click to expand...

Sorry, Jonathan, I don't know of any simple, reliable, and -- most of
all -- inexpensive, fax solutions. It's possible that some new
major-brand faxmodems come bundled with faxing software, but it's been
so long since I bought one that I have no idea what might be included.
If there's a large computer store near you, you might spend some time
going up and down the aisles and reading the labels on the modem packages.

The fax application that my firm, and many large firms, use is RightFax,
now owned by Captaris. http://www.captaris.com/rightfax/index.html I
have no idea what RightFax costs, but I can't imagine that it's
something that an individual or even a home-based business could afford.
To use an analogy (that's more apt for the paranoid US than the UK)
it's as if you needed a home security system and were offered a Marine
division.

A quick Google search for "fax software" shows a lot of hits, including
http://www.ntfaxfaq.com/ which appears to be a review site of sorts that
you might want to take a look at.
 
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