- Get Connected
- Sending a Fax
- The Fax Queue and Beyond
- Receiving Faxes
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Receiving Faxes
You can set up your computer to receive a fax, too. You do that with Tiger's Print and Fax preferences pane. Follow these steps:
- Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu to display the System Preferences window.
- Click the Print & Fax button to display the Print & Fax preferences pane.
- Click the Faxing button to display faxing options (see Figure 10).
Figure 10 Use the Faxing pane to set options for receiving faxes.
- Select the "Receive faxes on this computer" check box.
- In the My Fax Number box, enter your fax phone number. (You should do this even if you don't receive faxes; Mac OS X uses this information in the header of your outgoing faxes.)
- In the "Answer after" box, specify the number of times the phone should ring before your computer answers the phone to receive the fax.
- Select other options as desired to determine what your computer should do
with received faxes. You must choose at least one of these options:
- Save to. Specify a folder in which you want to save incoming faxes.
- Email to. Specify an address to which you want to email a copy of the fax.
- Print on printer. Specify a printer on which you want to print the fax.
- When you're finished setting options, choose Quit System Preferences from the System Preferences menu.
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When your computer receives a fax, there's no sound or other indication to let you know that a fax has arrived. Instead, your computer handles the incoming fax by following the instructions you provided in the preceding steps. For example, per the instructions I specified, my Mac saved the fax as a PDF file in the Faxes folder inside my Home folder, as shown in Figure 11. I can double-click that file to view the fax with Preview or Adobe Reader. Faxes remain in this folder until you delete them. I could also have had my Mac send the fax to me as an attachment to an email message and/or print it on my printer. (Normally, I would choose only one of those options—probably the printer.) Choose the method that makes sense in your work environment.
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Figure 11 You can find received faxes in the Faxes folder in your Home folder.
Now you know that there's a fax machine hidden away inside your Macintosh. Whether you want to send faxes or receive them, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger has you covered.
Maria Langer is a freelance writer who uses and writes about Mac OS. She is the author of the bestselling book Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: Visual QuickStart Guide (Peachpit Press 2005, ISBN 0321305264) about the latest and greatest version of Mac OS. Visit her on the web at http://www.marialanger.com.