Essential FAX Software

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EssentialFax installs and uses a standard Windows printer driver, which allows you to create faxes using the print-to-fax technique. Please see the Print-to-Fax Slideshow for a visual depiction of this process.

Note:  After installing EssentialFax, you can check your Windows printers list (Control Panel > Printers) and you will see a new printer, called Essential Fax on the ESSFAX virtual port.

The Essential Fax printer is used just like any other Windows printer. You can select the Essential Fax printer as your Windows printer when you are about to print a document. The difference is that, instead of printing your document to a physical printer, the Essential Fax printer automatically submits the document as an outgoing fax to EssentialFax.

The fax file that is created is stored by EssentialFax, and you can send the fax immediately, or at any later time. The software (i.e. Microsoft Word) that created the document for the fax does not have to be active once the file is sent to EssentialFax.

The basic steps for creating and sending a fax using the Essential Fax printer are:

  1. Create a document in your Windows software program, such as Microsoft Word.
  2. In the software (i.e. Microsoft Word), click File > Print, or the appropriate command for printing.
  3. On the Print dialog box, change the printer to the Essential Fax printer and then click OK.
  4. In the Essential Fax printer dialog box, select the Save it to the Outbox option, and then enter the Phone Number, Recipient, and Subject.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Now choose what to do with this fax from the three options presented:
-Switch to EssentialFax and send the fax immediately
-Switch to EssentialFax
-I will send the fax later.

When you switch to EssentialFax, the new fax will be listed under the Outbox folder, ready to send.

Please see the Print-to-Fax Slideshow for a visual depiction of this process.
 


In addition to creating a new fax from the Essential Fax printer dialog box, you also have the following two choices:

Save it to the Fax Enclosures Folder

Instead of selecting the Save it to the Outbox option, you can also choose the Save it to the Fax Enclosures folder, for later use. This will create a Fax Enclosure - a file in ready to use fax format, which you can use to create future faxes.

Append to a fax already in the Outbox

Instead of selecting the Save it to the Outbox option, you can also choose the Append it to a fax already in the Outbox option. If you choose this option, you are presented with a list of faxes already in the Outbox, to which you can append the current "print job".