User’s Guide
Modern fax machines come with so many sophisticated features that help them to retain a special place in offices even today. As some of the important, sensitive documents cannot be sent by email or internet, fax machines are so useful, reliable devices in such cases. Here is a simple guide on using a fax machine:
How to send a fax message?
Before sending a fax, you need following things:
- The fax number of the fax machine at far end.
- The material you want to send (text, images, drawings etc).
- A cover sheet containing details like recipient’s name, fax number, sender’s name, phone number, message for the recipient, number of copies/documents to be sent etc.
Sending a fax message:
- Switch on the fax machine after checking that it is connected to the phone line.
- The documents should be kept face-up in the feeder tray. Remember to keep the cover sheet on the top.
- Dial the fax number of the recipient.
- Now, your fax machine is ready to scan the documents. Press the ‘fax’ button, sometimes ‘send’ button.
- Once scanning of all pages is over, fax machine will start sending message to the remote fax machine. You can hear fax tones which is an indication that the documents are being transmitted. It will take a few minutes for the fax machine to complete the delivery of entire material to the recipient. Wait till you get the confirmation that the documents are delivered.
- Depending on the design of the fax machines, you may get confirmation on the display screen or on a printed, delivery report.
The messages/documents received by your fax machine in digital format, are decoded into original format after uncompressing, before they are printed on a physical medium. There are various printers like thermal printers, inkjet printers, laser printers or dot-matrix printers that are used with fax machines. Thermal printers are cheaper and highly durable. However, inkjet and laser printers which are a bit expensive provide high quality printouts. Use a printer that suits your requirements and budget.
To receive a fax, follow these instructions:
- Your fax machine should be connected to the power source and phone line.
- Keep the required papers on paper tray.
- Check whether the cartridge in your printer has enough ink to produce better results. If you get alert messages from your fax machine about insufficient ink, change the cartridge.
- Feed the paper properly (by fanning the paper), otherwise, paper jam can occur.
- Once the fax machine starts to receive the material from the remote end, you will hear fax tones. Soon after, the printing will start.
After the fax printer has completed the task, collect the documents. Remember to go through the cover sheet to make sure that your fax machine has received all the pages.
