Fax using Outlook 97 contacts for FAX numbers

[Ken Wampach]

OS Windows XP Home SP1 with all critical updates
OE 6.00.2800.1123

I used to be able to send faxes by selecting the address book
and I would be able to use the contacts in Microsoft Outlook 97.
It has probably been over a year since I tried to use this. When
the Fax wizard opens the Address Book it now sees the Windows
Address Book which is almost empty.

I presume that an update to OE/WAB did this. Does anyone know of
a way to get the Fax Wizard to use the Outlook 97 Contacts
entries again?

 

[Earl F. Parrish]

OS Windows XP Home SP1 with all critical updates
OE 6.00.2800.1123

I used to be able to send faxes by selecting the address book
and I would be able to use the contacts in Microsoft Outlook 97.
It has probably been over a year since I tried to use this. When
the Fax wizard opens the Address Book it now sees the Windows
Address Book which is almost empty.

I presume that an update to OE/WAB did this. Does anyone know of
a way to get the Fax Wizard to use the Outlook 97 Contacts
entries again?

I have Windows XP SP2 and use Outlook 2003. When I choose to Send
Fax, I click on Address Book and get a dropdown arrow where I can
choose a different address book. If you have no choices, you can
select a different one from Outlook in the Accounts Setup
configuration.

By the way, Microsoft gave away an upgrade to Outlook 97 to make it
Outlook 98, which is better for Internet Mail than 97. The free
update is no longer available on the Microsoft website. You might
be able to find it in one of the Microsoft Outlook books at the
library. That is what I did one time to upgrade on a friend's
computer. The trouble with downloading programs is that it is hard
to keep a complete copy of a program because many download routines
only download a stub. This stub is run to install the rest of the
files on the fly.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Windows XP Fax only integrates with Outlook 2002 and 2003. Once one of these
is installed, it will default to the Outlook Address Book. If they are not,
it will use the WAB.

 

[Ken Wampach]

Windows XP Fax only integrates with Outlook 2002 and 2003. Once one of these
is installed, it will default to the Outlook Address Book. If they are not,
it will use the WAB.

Thanks for the info. That's what appears to be the case now. I
know that Windows XP Fax used was able to use the Outlook 97
Contacts when I set up our (2)Windows XP PCs in 2004, but it no
longer works on either of them. I presume that one of the
critical updates that has been installed broke that capability.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm not so sure about that. All I can tell you is that Windows XP Fax is
based on the fax module developed for the NT kernel. It was originally known
as NT Personal Fax. It is not the same module that was developed for the Win
9x kernel (aka "Microsoft Fax" or "At Work Fax"). Only the latter was
designed to integrate with Outlook 97, 98(CW) or 2000(CW).
Windows XP Fax was designed to integrate only with Outlook 2002 and 2003. In
the future integration with modem faxing will be abandoned completely in
Outlook. Any Fax module based on the NT kernel is MAPI aware (but not MAPI
dependent as the 9x fax module was). In theory, it would be possible to
integrate Windows XP Fax with earlier versions of Outlook, but it is
certainly not supported and I know of no one whose operating systems and
Office versions are so disparate that they would even try it.

 

[Ken Wampach]

My problem has been solved!
At some point I had changed the settings under Internet
Options/Programs to make the default E-Mail program Yahoo Mail,
which is the primary mail tool we use. When I set it to
Microsoft Outlook and re-logged in to Windows XP Home, Windows
FAX was working the way it did when I first configured our PCs.
Windows FAX is now getting the FAX numbers from the Contacts
Folder of Outlook 97.
I feel better that it was my change that caused the problem
rather than something Microsoft did. I did not suspect the
linkage between the default Mail program and the address book
used by FAX. I use Outlook and FAX so rarely, that it was a long
time between the change and my discovery of the side effect. I
found the indication that this might be my problem in an old
post which, if I recall correctly, was by you, Russ.
Thanks for your assistance.
--
Ken Wampach - FirstNameATLastNameDOTorg

I'm not so sure about that. All I can tell you is that Windows XP Fax is
based on the fax module developed for the NT kernel. It was originally known
as NT Personal Fax. It is not the same module that was developed for the Win
9x kernel (aka "Microsoft Fax" or "At Work Fax"). Only the latter was
designed to integrate with Outlook 97, 98(CW) or 2000(CW).
Windows XP Fax was designed to integrate only with Outlook 2002 and 2003. In
the future integration with modem faxing will be abandoned completely in
Outlook. Any Fax module based on the NT kernel is MAPI aware (but not MAPI
dependent as the 9x fax module was). In theory, it would be possible to
integrate Windows XP Fax with earlier versions of Outlook, but it is
certainly not supported and I know of no one whose operating systems and
Office versions are so disparate that they would even try it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

If
they are not,
Thanks for the info. That's what appears to be the case now. I
know that Windows XP Fax used was able to use the Outlook 97
Contacts when I set up our (2)Windows XP PCs in 2004, but it no
longer works on either of them. I presume that one of the
critical updates that has been installed broke that capability.
--
Ken Wampach - FirstNameATLastNameDOTorg
Outlook
97. this.
When