Australian PC World - Fax you very much!

Fax you very much!

FaxModems are handy little critters ain't they? You can travel the world, e-mail a friend, colleague or complete stranger; download useful (and sometimes useless) files and programs; and send and receive faxes at whim.
Problem: how do you reply to a fax that requires you to "fill in a form" or "add your comments" and return it to the originator? If you own a full page scanner (and I don't yet) you can print the sender's fax, add your comments or details, scan it and fax it back. Is there any other method or nifty piece of software that will allow "on-screen" editing for these occasions? OCR type stuff! I would be interested to know how other people work around this problem.
- Ron Jesse

There is a simple solution to your problem. The fax that you have received is stored in your computer as a graphical image. This image can be saved and opened up in a graphics editor such as Windows Paintbrush or Paintshop Pro. You can then add whatever text that you want to the image. You can even add ticks, checks, crosses and editing symbols etc. You then just fax this edited image back.
OCR software can convert the graphical image to text for editing purposes. Used on anything but a page of plain text however, it can often be disastrous unless you are using an expensive full featured OCR package (which can cost as much as a full page scanner). And what about all the check boxes and other graphical elements? Given all this, if you are faxed something in a nice large clear font, OCR software, whether as a separate package or built into the fax software, can be quite helpful.
- Roy Chambers

Category: Communications
Issue: Feb 1997
Pages: 162