FAXing From FMP 9

Profile:
Win Server 2003
FMServer 9 (Love it!)
Client OS - XP Pro SP2
FMPro 9 - 17 Clients


The office manager prints individual reports daily (Upwards of 30) and
Faxes them to individual customers, one at a time, through our fax machine.
(Actually she makes the receptionist do it). I have searched and searched
and searched for a plugin that will read the Fax number from the FaxNumber
field and send indivdual faxes to some sort of Fax que without having to
match up each document with an address book and then send them.

All I can find are outdated plugins that uses unsupported older fax softare
or others that use something called "AppleScript". (JK! Used to use a Mac).
There has to be something!


Thanks!

Re: FAXing From FMP 9

Post removed (X-No-Archive: yes)

Re: FAXing From FMP 9

On Sep 14, 7:06 am, Brent Simon wrote:

Snip
> There has to be something!
/Snip

Fax Plug-in - states v5.5 - v8, I'd give it a try w/ v9
http://www.onlinepl.com/faxconsole1.htm

Win XP Fax Service - Comes with XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306550

I have not experimented with this setup, but it sounds like what you
are wanting.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Reality is the leading cause of stress...
....amongst those in touch with it.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
WinXP Pro 32 & 64Bit / FMP Adv 9.0v1
VoicesInMyHead
a.k.a. The Voices
No, we're not... Yes, we are...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The only reason some people get lost in thought
is because it's unfamiliar territory for them.

Re: FAXing From FMP 9

In article , Martin
Trautmann wrote:

> On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:06:05 GMT, Brent Simon wrote:
> > The office manager prints individual reports daily (Upwards of 30) and
> > Faxes them to individual customers, one at a time, through our fax
> > machine.
> > (Actually she makes the receptionist do it). I have searched and searched
> > and searched for a plugin that will read the Fax number from the FaxNumber
> > field and send indivdual faxes to some sort of Fax que without having to
> > match up each document with an address book and then send them.

One option might bew a email-to-fax service. You could email the
reports to the service, with the fax number included in the address or
first lines of the email. The service would then convert that email
into a fax and send it to the recipient. I've never looked very closely
at these services, so I'm not sure about the costs involved (I do
vaguely recall a free service, but they no doubt then use the
recipient's fax number and / or your email account to send junk mail).




> It's built into the OSX system - you may use the fax instead of a
> printer.

Two problems. That method won't pull the fax number from a FileMaker
field and Brent isn't using a Mac and anyway ... otherwise you're spot
on. ;o)

There is of course a third potential problem. Newer Macs no longer ship
with a modem, so you have to buy a separate external USB modem to be
able to utilise this function.


Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Re: FAXing From FMP 9

On Sep 14, 3:21 pm, Helpful Harry
wrote:
> In article , Martin
>
> Trautmann wrote:
> > On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:06:05 GMT, Brent Simon wrote:
> > > The office manager prints individual reports daily (Upwards of 30) and
> > > Faxes them to individual customers, one at a time, through our fax
> > > machine.
> > > (Actually she makes the receptionist do it). I have searched and searched
> > > and searched for a plugin that will read the Fax number from the FaxNumber
> > > field and send indivdual faxes to some sort of Fax que without having to
> > > match up each document with an address book and then send them.
>
> One option might bew a email-to-fax service. You could email the
> reports to the service, with the fax number included in the address or
> first lines of the email. The service would then convert that email
> into a fax and send it to the recipient.

I second this suggestion. I've converted a few offices to complete fax-
email services for both incoming and outgoing faxes, as well as
integrated them with filemaker. It works beautifully.


> I've never looked very closely
> at these services, so I'm not sure about the costs involved

There a number of plans out there, and you should shop around, costs
can be prohibitively high if you do an awful lot of faxxing, but if
you can make a complete transition to internet faxxing, you can drop
needing a fax machine, supplies (toner / paper), and a phone line,
entirely. And that can go a long ways towards covering your internet
fax service costs. (For light users, the savings from cancelling the
fax line can completely offset the internet service.)

Internet fax has other advantages too - you can send a fax from
anywhere you can send an email. And you can receive a fax from
anywhere you have access to a browser.
>
> > It's built into the OSX system - you may use the fax instead of a
> > printer.
>
> Two problems. That method won't pull the fax number from a FileMaker
> field and Brent isn't using a Mac and anyway ... otherwise you're spot
> on. ;o)

Windows actually has fax services built in as well. But again, you
need a modem, and again theirs no trivial way of getting the fax
number from filemaker. So the situation on PCs is about the same.

If you want to send faxes from filemaker seamessly, you'll need 3rd
party softare of some sort or other.

-cheers,
Dave

Re: FAXing From FMP 9

Post removed (X-No-Archive: yes)

Re: FAXing From FMP 9

On Sep 17, 3:18 am, Martin Trautmann wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:21:26 +1200, Helpful Harry wrote:
> > > It's built into the OSX system - you may use the fax instead of a
> > > printer.
>
> > Two problems. That method won't pull the fax number from a FileMaker
> > field and Brent isn't using a Mac and anyway ... otherwise you're spot
> > on. ;o)
>
> Hm, I thought that FMP may pass the fax number. I'll check once again.
> I prepared it once, but I guess I used AppleScript from within FMP.
>
> > There is of course a third potential problem. Newer Macs no longer ship
> > with a modem, so you have to buy a separate external USB modem to be
> > able to utilise this function.
>
> I was told that PCs still come with modem - almost all of them.
>
> The Mac/Win solution would be to get an Intel-Mac, to run Mac and Win in
> parallel and to get an extra USB-Modem ;-)
>
> - Martin

Laptops mostly yes. Desktops hit and miss. More no than yes.

Re: FAXing From FMP 9

In article , Martin
Trautmann wrote:

> On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:21:26 +1200, Helpful Harry wrote:
> > > It's built into the OSX system - you may use the fax instead of a
> > > printer.
> >
> > Two problems. That method won't pull the fax number from a FileMaker
> > field and Brent isn't using a Mac and anyway ... otherwise you're spot
> > on. ;o)
>
> Hm, I thought that FMP may pass the fax number. I'll check once again.
> I prepared it once, but I guess I used AppleScript from within FMP.
>
> > There is of course a third potential problem. Newer Macs no longer ship
> > with a modem, so you have to buy a separate external USB modem to be
> > able to utilise this function.
>
> I was told that PCs still come with modem - almost all of them.
>
> The Mac/Win solution would be to get an Intel-Mac, to run Mac and Win in
> parallel and to get an extra USB-Modem ;-)

Buying a Mac is ALWAYS the solution to EVERYTHING. ;o)

Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)