Copyright Notice, Disclaimer and Trademark Acknowledgements
This document is copyrighted.
Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 BCOM COMPUTER. All rights reserved. This document is not to be printed in whole or in part without prior written consent of BCOM COMPUTER.
Disclaimer:
This software and documentation contains valuable trade secrets and proprietary information. Unauthorized use of this software or documentation may result in civil damages and/or criminal prosecution. BCOM COMPUTER believes that this documentation is accurate and accurately depicts the software's behavior but assumes no responsibility for its use, nor for any rights of third parties who may lawfully become entitled to, and do use the software or documentation contained herein.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent any commitments on the part of BCOM COMPUTER. This document is copyrighted and is protected by law. It is against the law to copy the software onto any medium except as allowed under a purchased license version or under a nondisclosure agreement. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including, photocopying, electronic scan, mechanical, or video for any purpose without expressed written permission from BCOM COMPUTER.
BCOM QUEFILE TM and BCOM QUEFAX TM are trademarks of BCOM COMPUTER.
Word TM and Write TM are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
WordPerfect « is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation.
* All or any other company names and/or products listed
are trademarks (TM), registered trademarks («), or
Thank you for purchasing BCOM QUEFILE/QUEFAX. We believe its the only choice for users who like sensible, easy to use software. We sincerely hope you enjoy this software!
BCOM COMPUTER.
Helping people communicate around the world.
Theory of Operation, An Introduction
BCOM QUEFAX is a personal computer based fax manager that offers the necessary screens in order to send, receive, view and manipulate faxes. Faxes may be sent or received to/from other fax modems or fax machines. Faxes are primarily based on disk and there is no need to generate paper unless the user requires a hard-copy. Received faxes can be view on-screen, printed, or used in other Windows applications! BCOM QUEFAX ties into BCOM QUEFILE via the Windows TM DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange ) interface. This allows the bulk of the fax ( image ) handling to be separated into a component package. BCOM QUEFILE still performs all the communication required to do the actual exchange of fax information on the phone line.
Sending
Here is an high level illustration of what happens internally during a fax send request.
This drawing clearly shows the division of responsibility between the two products ( BCOM QUEFAX and QUEFILE ).
Sending steps:
1. Select the input file format.
A. Text file - an ASCII document.
B. Image file - .BMP etc.
C. Print-2-Fax - Print from any Windows Application
to the BCOM PRINT2FX.DRV.
2. Export image or file to .BSF format Note 1.
3. Select the "Fax" menu item on BCOM QUEFAX, then "Send".
B. Select the desired entry and press the dial button.
C. The user may terminate the send by pressing quit.
Note 1. This release, once a file is exported there is no way to view the exported file.
Receiving
Receiving (technically speaking) is easier than sending. The fax data received is always in the same format, Group 3 Run Length Encoded (RLE) fax bitmap. The user may invoke a manual receive from the BCOM QUEFILE file menu pull-down. This is ideal for when you want to just receive a single fax. You can also use BCOM QUEFILE host-mode, which allows both data and inbound fax sessions to be handled automatically.
BCOM QUEFILE detects the type of connection and automatically switches to 1.data mode, where a host-mode BBS type system allows users to use menus or; 2. fax mode, where BCOM receives faxes . Once a fax is received from BCOM QUEFILE, it exports the fax, page by page to a Tagged Information Format file(.TIF ) in the FAXIN directory. Actually, at this point any TIF viewer could view the received fax files, although the file extensions (.001-.999) represent the fax page number .TIF file is. Each fax received is provided a unique incrementing file name. An entry is made into a FAXRLOG file in the BCOM install directory as to identify:
1. Fax Name ( a unique base 36 number ).
2. How many pages.
3. If the fax has been viewed or not.
4. The date and time the fax arrived.
5. Who the Caller Station Identifier ( CSID ) was.
The user should then go to the BCOM QUEFAX "fax" menu item. Selected the "Receive" menu item. If faxes are available, a dialog box is displayed.
In summary
The fax managers responsibility starts with image processing and ends with the actual faxing of the data. All send fax files require formatting before they are sent. Received fax files are exported to TIF files.
Getting Started
Please read the section "Theory of operation" to better understand the fax send and receive techniques used in this manual. This section will focus on the "basics", BCOM QUEFAX setup, fax send, and fax receive.
BCOM QUEFAX is a dedicated fax manager user interface for BCOM QUEFILE. BCOM QUEFAX provides the essential user interface necessary to send and receive faxes. BCOM QUEFAX ( sometimes referred as FAXMGR ), is used in conjunction with BCOM QUEFILE. BCOM QUEFILE is necessary to do the actual sending and receiving. The FAXMGR alone can't send or receive a fax.
It is assumed at this point you have installed BCOM QUEFILE and QUEFAX (FAXMGR.EXE, which is part of the BCOM QUEFILE installation). If not, see the BCOM QUEFILE manual for complete installation instructions. The FAXMGR is installed with the BCOM QUEFILE install program.
There are two ways to start the FAXMGR:
1. Use the File Option on the BCOM QUEFILE menu bar. Select Launch Fax Mgr...
or
2. Double click on the following icon.
Setup FAXMGR
The first time FAXMGR is executed, a configuration panel requests BCOM QUEFILE setup information:
The station ID is typically your phone number. This informs the remote computer or fax machine to whom the Caller Station ID (CSID) is.
Fax Properties allows you to set the preferred Dots Per Inch or DPI. The DPI indicates the density of dots in a square inch,. The more dots the better the image resolution and clarity.
The cover sheet box allows you to define a cover sheet for send faxes. The checkbox, Always Generate Cover defaults the fax send dialog box to Text cover ( See Additional Features section Generating cover sheets for more information). The "Default BMP Background filename" allows you to define a filename.bmp as a background for a 'custom look' graphics overlay cover sheet. The Default From Name is the name on the printed cover sheet as in:
To: Remote Fax User
From: Brent Jamerson
The Max Modem Tx Rate indicates the maximum transmission rate of your fax modem. Please set this value according to your fax modem specifications.
Note: BCOM is preset to work with most class 2 group 3 fax modems. Setting some of the following parameters may result in initialization errors and subsequently fax send/receive failures. If you experience problems, try resetting the parameters shown in the Setup Dialog Box.
You may also need to manually change the Fax Modem Initialization String under the BCOM QUEFILE Configuration menu item, then Set Strings (shown below). A list of know fax-modem initialization strings are provided in a file called FAXMODEM.CFG.
Special Parameters:
Error Correction Mode (some modems don't support this option) allows you to send fax data error free. ECM data block sizes are 64 and (faster)256 bytes. The remote modem and yours will negotiate this parameter however set, none, 64 or 256.
Enable Fax Header (Transmit Terminal Identifier TTI) enables you to turn off and on send fax page headers. If enabled, BCOM QUEFILE (at run-time) will send Day/Date/Time, Sender TSI, called CSID, and Page Number atop each page transmitted ( an example follows):
More on Setup...
Enable Fax File Copy is not available currently. This feature allows fax modems to exchange data file information using a special fax-modem protocol.
Disable Fax Receive allows you to disable BCOM QUEFILE from receiving faxes from host mode. It doesn't affect receives of data sessions nor does it affect receiving faxes manually via
Fax Receive Now.
Press "OK" to save changes or "Cancel" to quit save and exit panel. If you wish to re-enter changes later, choose the Options menu item from the main screen, then Configure.
Once the FAXMGR has been executed, the main screen will appear:
Sending a Fax
There are currently three methods ( ways ) to import different file types and export them as send BCOM fax formatted files: image, text and Print-2-Fax . The objective of all three methods is to get the input file type to a common output file type compatible with facsimile machines. BCOM QUEFAX uses a proprietary export format called BCOM Send Fax or (.BSF).
After each method achieves this goal they resume in a common approach to sending the fax, using the BCOM QUEFAX Send Fax dialog box. After each of the next three send sections, they will request you to "Now see Resumption of all types of sends...". This section follows the three send sections in this Getting Started section.
BCOM QUEFILE is required to send all fax types!
1. Sending Images
Use the File menu Open Image option to select a .TIF or .BMP type of image file. See the Technical Specifications chapter for exact image specifications supported! This will import the image to a Device Independent Bitmap (DIB). Any time an image is loaded, a dialog box will appear showing you the percentage of progress complete( this can take a while on large images!). Once an image is viewed, the file must be exported to a BCOM Send Fax (.BSF) file format. To do this, select the File pull-down, then the option Export Image To SendFax File. Images must be rendered to a bi-level ( 2 color: black and white ) monochrome bitmaps. Black and white are the only colors a fax machine currently understands.
A dialog box will appear asking you to select an export dither type. Dithering is a technique which allows a colored bitmap to be rendered to black and white.
Export dither choices are:
1. Threshold, a threshold value based from 0-255. This value indicates the threshold
at which Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) values flip from off to on.
Though this is a primitive method, it works quite well for text and line art.
2. Dot Dither, a more complex method of grouping dots from a color palette
converted to gray scale. Works great for line art, text, and non-complex images.
3. Floyd-Steinberg, a complex method of gray scale in combination with line samples.
This is the preferred method for images, but is slow due to computational overhead.
Any of these options may be experimented with. If you want to experiment, next time export to TIF ( instead of BSF ) and reload the image to see what works best for your application. The compression options are grayed out (inhibited) when using Export to BSF. Only the Group 3 Fax/CCITT option is available. When exporting to a normal TIF file (not BSF), you may use the other compression types (if necessary).
The exported image retains the same name but now as has a new file extension, ".BSF".
Now see Resumption of all types of sends...
2. Sending Text Files
If you are sending ordinary text files (such as your autoexec.bat) this is a method. If you require mixed bitmaps and text or text with special fonts (such as WordPerfect TM or other Windows applications formats ) you must use the Print-2-Fax driver listed as the next send option!
Use the FAXMGR main File menu pull-down, then Export text file to SendFax Format. A dialog box will request an input text file and path ( though the default file extension is .TXT you may use any type file). The send text option essentially lets you send an ASCII file as a fax document (text to bitmap conversion will occur ). BCOM QUEFAX will import the ASCII text file characters and export an image bitmap using a preselected bitmapped font. This is really a fast way to send your AUTOEXEC.BAT or any other file, even files with line draw characters! The process takes approximately 5 seconds per full text page. The preselected font text metrics dictate that page lines may be 100 characters long without wrapping lines, and each sent page will be 50 lines long.
During the export process, BCOM QUEFAX will read characters from the input file name (like autoexec.bat) and write .BSF image files to the FAXOUT directory.
The target .BSF file names can be identified by the following format: XXXXXnnn.BSF.
Where the first 5 letters (XXXX) of the selected text file name, the next 3 characters (nnn) will compose the page number, and the file extension will be .BSF. For example, if you export your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and it was 3 pages long, the following (.BSF SendFax ) files would be made in the "FAXOUT" directory:
1. AUTOE000.BSF
2. AUTOE001.BSF
3. AUTOE002.BSF
Now see Resumption of all types of sends...
3. Sending using the Print-2-Fax (using the PRINT2FX.DRV) driver:
The print to fax driver PRINT2FX.DRV (installed automatically during the BCOM QUEFILE installation) will allow users to literally print from any Windows application ( Write TM, WordPerfect TM , etc.) directly to ".BSF" fax images. You first must select the BCOM QUEFAX print driver "BCOM QUEFAX on Port x" using the Control Panel and Printers. Once this is selected as your default printer, you may print any Windows document to a series of BCOM QUEFAX BSF fax files.
Once the selected Windows application begins to print, the print stream will be redirected to the BCOM QUEFAX driver. A dialog box will then request a 5 character fax name identifier (same
principles as in Export Text File To SendFax Format).
The 5 character identifier will be used in helping to identify the new file name as it exports from its native format ( WordPerfect TM or Word TM etc.) to .BSF fax format.
The target .BSF file names can be identified by the following format: XXXXXnnn.BSF.
Where the first 5 letters (XXXX) of the selected text file name, the next 3 characters (nnn) will compose the page number, and the file extension will be .BSF. For example, if you choose "BRENT" as your 5 character identifier and the document was 3 pages long, the following (.BSF SendFax ) files would be made available in the "FAXOUT" directory:
1. BRENT000.BSF
2. BRENT001.BSF
3. BRENT002.BSF
Now see Resumption of all types of sends...
Resumption of all types of sends...
Now selected the Fax menu item, then Send.
A dialog box allows you to select from eligible BCOM Send Fax ( .BSF ) files. Select the image name you imported by double-clicking on that entry from the left listbox. Now it should appear in the right listbox. You may also use the "Select->" push-button. To remove selected files, highlight the file from the "Selected Files" listbox and press the "<-Remove" button. At this point you may either:
1. Cancel, press the cancel button.
2. Send without a cover sheet, press the Send button now.
3. Send with a cover sheet, press the Text or Graphic Overlay cover sheet button.
A "No" indicates no cover sheet is selected.
( See Additional Features section "Generating cover sheets" for more information).
4. Return later to this panel and "Delete Selected" files in order to clean-up.
Currently, the Schedule button is the same as the Send button!
Assuming you pressed Send, BCOM QUEFAX will now attempt to find BCOM QUEFILE to pass the selected files names in order to send them. BCOM QUEFAX will search for any instance (0-9) of BCOM QUEFILE to send the fax.
- If BCOM QUEFAX does not detect BCOM QUEFILE running, it will ask if you want to launch instance zero ( For more information on BCOM QUEFILE and Instances, see BCOM QUEFILE Getting Started ). At this point BCOM QUEFAX can automatically launch instance zero of BCOM QUEFILE by answering Yes, or you may launch BCOM QUEFILE manually then answer No to the dialog box.
If you answer No to the launch question and don't manually invoke BCOM QUEFILE (its a no- brainer), BCOM QUEFAX will timeout looking for BCOM QUEFILE and warn you the fax launch is aborted. If BCOM QUEFILE was already running, this launch dialog box will not appear.
The FAXMGR's responsibility with the send fax is now complete. BCOM QUEFILE will now request a dial entry to send the fax to.
Select or enter the name and phone number of the desired destination. Press the "Dial" button to send the fax or "Quit" button to cancel the send. The "Fax Entry" checkbox must be selected if you use this entry as a fax entry. For additional information on the BCOM QUEFILE dial directory dialog box see the BCOM QUEFILE users guide.
Once the fax send is underway, you may cancel by pressing the "Cancel" button on the fax transfer dialog box.
As the fax is sent, the progress bar will reflect the current page progress 0-100%. The status will update with the following information:
1. Modem initialization parameters.
2. The dial phone number and retry count if necessary ( unlimited retries ).
3. Connect information from the modem.
4. Page count.
5. Page status and hang-up code.
6. Reset information upon termination or cancel.
Receiving a Fax
BCOM QUEFILE is required to receive faxes! BCOM QUEFILE may receive faxes two ways:
1. Host mode, where both fax sessions and normal data sessions are handled automatically. BCOM actually senses a incoming FAX or HOST DATA session and switches appropriately.
For more information on BCOM QUEFILE host mode, see the BCOM QUEFILE users guide section Host mode.
2. A manual invocation of "Fax Receive Now" from the BCOM QUEFILE File pull-down.
This option launches a receive immediately ( as soon as BCOM QUEFILE can initialize the modem ).
The above graphic shows an actual BCOM unattended host mode fax receive in progress.
As the fax is received, the progress bar will always reflect 100% because the length is unknown!
The above graphic shows the BCOM QUEFILE host mode fax receive completed. The fax is then exported to a .TIF format and is made available for FAXMGR to view as a received fax. BCOM QUEFILE host mode then resets and is ready to receive another incoming fax or host data session.
BCOM QUEFILE will log received faxes in a fax receive log file (FAXRLOG). To confirm a fax has arrived, invoke the FAXMGR and select the Fax menu item, then Receive. If BCOM QUEFILE has never received a fax, the fax log file (FAXRLOG) will be empty and the FAXMGR will provide a message box stating: "No fax log or faxes received!", this is normal.
A dialog box will then display fax documents received:
Each line (fax entry) represents all the pages of a received fax. Each entry has :
1. A unique internally administered name.
2. The page count.
3. Fax viewed indicator [ Yes | No ].
4. The date and time the fax was received.
5. The Caller Station ID (CSID) of the remote user (if available).
You may now View the fax by selecting the fax entry ( highlighting it ) then by selecting the View button. The Cancel button will return you to the main screen. You may Print the fax (any range of pages) by selecting the Print button. Finally, you may Delete the fax entry ( and all of its pages ) by pressing the Delete button.
It may be necessary to view the image scaled in order to see the entire fax page.
For more information on Scaling an Image see General Operating Information, Viewing an Image Normal and Scaled. You may page up and down ( use the Page Up and Down keys ) to see all the pages of the fax, one page at a time.
Additional Features
This section assumes you already have a working knowledge of topics discussed in the Getting Started section. Reading Getting Started is a prerequisite to reading this section.
Generating a cover sheet
A cover sheet provides information from the fax sender to the remote user:
1. Date and time the fax was sent.
2. To: ( the remote user name)
3. From: ( the local fax senders name )
4. Page count ( including cover sheet )
5. Subject: ( fax subject )
6. Comments: ( about the fax )
A cover sheet can be sent prior to other fax pages to notify the destination fax user.
Cover sheets are generated only after pressing the Send or Schedule buttons from the Send Fax dialog box. Selecting a Text or Graphics cover sheet prior to sending the fax results in only toggling the cover sheet indicator on the Send Fax dialog box:
If the Define Cover Sheet option indicates "No", no cover sheet will be generated! Pressing the Text and Graphics Overlay cover sheet buttons results in toggling the option from a cover sheet to no cover sheet.
Default cover sheet information is filled out during the initial setup ( you may also select "Options", then "Configure") using the cover sheet box:
1. Always Generate Cover - This checkbox allows you to always request a text cover sheet. The default is no cover sheet. Graphics Overlay cover sheets must always be explicitly requested manually.
2. Default .BMP file name - Is a .BMP ( native Microsoft Bitmap format) file that is used as a background during the generation of a Graphics Overlay cover sheet.
3. Default from name - is the default "From: name" in the Cover Sheet Dialog box.
BCOM QUEFAX employs two methods of generating cover sheets:
1. Text Cover Sheet, a fast predefined method of using a built-in font and page
layout.
2. Graphics Overlay, which allows the user to define a .BMP ( native Microsoft
Bitmap format) background (colored or monochrome ) with cover sheet text
overlaid ( Exclusive OR'd ) on top of it.
This makes for a very custom look to your cover sheet but is takes considerably
more time. The .BMP file is filled out during the initial setup cover sheet
question: "Default .BMP file name".
Both methods ( Text and Graphics Overlay ) require that you fill in the Cover Sheet Dialog Box:
You may omit any of these fields if necessary. Note the from field is defaulted from the Setup information earlier.
For your information, text cover sheets are exported to .BSF format automatically. The cover sheet name is always $tcvr000.BSF. This name is embedded in a list of .BSF file names to send to BCOM QUEFILE.
The Graphics Overlay cover sheets require a final step. The user must select the cover sheet export dithering technique to convert the background bitmap to a bi-level (Black and White) monochrome .BSF file. For more information see Getting Started: Sending Images.
For your information, Graphics Overlay cover sheets are exported to .BSF format after dithering, using the file name from the Setup cover sheet question Default .BMP file name. The cover sheet name is always "Default .BMP file name.BSF". This name is embedded in a list of .BSF file names sent to BCOM QUEFILE.
Example Graphics Overlay cover sheet before and after export:
Example of a text cover sheet:
Exporting an image
Sizing an image
When exporting an image, the image size is WYSIWYG ( pronounced "wizee-wig", What You See Is What You Get ). The size of the image is either the lesser of the original size or a normal fax page size (1728 pixels width x 1163 pixels height). If you have selected View and Scale to Window Size, the bitmap is reduced or enlarged (scaled) to the Windows client size. In this case the size of the image is either the lesser of the window size or a normal fax page size (1728 pixels width x 1163 pixels height).
For more information on Scaling an Image see General Operating Information, Viewing an Image Normal and Scaled.
General Operational Information
Viewing an image Normal and Scaled
When viewing an image you currently have two view choices:
1. Normal ( Dot for Dot )
2. Scale to Window Size ( Reduced or enlarged to fit the current window size )
o If the image is larger than the current window size (usually a received fax is larger -1728 x 1162) it is necessary to scale or reduce the picture in order to view the entire picture.
o If the image is smaller than the current window size (see pictures below) the image can be expanded to the current window size if scaled.
Using The Clipboard
Copy
Copy allows the user to copy the current BCOM QUEFAX image to the Windows Clipboard. This allows other Windows applications that use the clipboard to "Paste" or use the image.
Paste
Paste allows the user to paste the current clipboard contents ( only if it is a .BMP bitmap ) into the current BCOM QUEFAX screen as the currently selected image. It may be then used as an image to export as .TIF or .BSF formats.
Using View: Load Options
Under the View menu item is an option: Load Options:
This dialog box allows the user to alter the loaded bitmap file (.BMP or .TIF ) with contrast and brightness. This is sometimes necessary if the image has multiple levels of color so close that the exported image may have sections missing after dithering. If necessary, try using different levels of brightness and contrast to determine what best works for your particular need.
Technical Specifications
Modems Supported:
Any CCITT T.3 Class 2. (currently SP2388B Class 2.0 are not tested but
support has been included) Group 3 fax modem.
Disclaimer:
Every effort has been made to test a variety of modem configurations.
Not every class 2 or class 2.0 modem is guaranteed to work.
Read Image File Types Supported:
.BMP .TIF up to 256 colors.
Write Image File Types Supported:
.TIF up to 256 colors, .BSF (proprietary) BCOM Send Fax 2 color monochrome.
