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Faxing with the TelePort

The TelePort’s fax capability is elegant and easy to use. If you purchase the fax version of the TelePort or purchase a fax upgrade later, you receive a TelePort/FAX file to join the TelePort control panel in your System Folder. This new file is a Chooser extension that lets you choose the TelePort as though it were a printer. This means that sending a fax is almost as simple as printing a document on your printer! When you have the TelePort/FAX selected in the Chooser, choose Print… from any application’s File menu, and you’ll get a simple dialog box that lets you type in a fax telephone number and the recipient’s name (you can also manipulate a fax phone book, so you won’t have to remember frequently-used fax numbers). Clicking "OK" causes your program to "print" the document to the TelePort’s fax software, which then calls the receiving fax machine, and sends the fax. Mucking about with the Chooser can be a pain if you are sending a number of faxes and also printing frequently, so Global Village added a nice feature to simplify the process of switching. Merely hold down the option key when you choose Print… and you’ll see the TelePort dialog box instead of the standard Print dialog box, even if you have another printer selected in the Chooser.

Faxed documents that have been sent by the TelePort look much sharper and cleaner than regular faxes, because they are never "scanned" by an imperfect optical fax machine. And, since the TelePort software takes advantage of both Adobe Type Manager and TrueType, you can use outline fonts that will look good at any size.

According to Global Village, future improvements to the TelePort/FAX software will include automatic group faxing (sending a single fax to a group of recipients at once), fax scheduling (so you can send an unattended fax late at night to save telephone charges), and improved phone-book handling.

For early purchasers who have the 4800 bps FAX version of the TelePort instead of the newer 9600 bps version, a very inexpensive upgrade is available. Users should contact Global Village for the details.

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