Quick Link II Fax (250-3027B) Getting Started Faxback Doc. # 3230 Starting Quick Link II Fax Quick Link II Fax is a DOS program, which means that you must navigate through DOS somewhat in order to start it up. The preferred way to run Quick Link II Fax is the following: 1. Start your computer - after a moment you should see the C:\> prompt. If you launch into Windows or a menu program, exit to DOS until you get a prompt. 2. Type CD\QL2FAX at your DOS prompt. This switches you into the default Quick Link II Fax Install directory. If you installed Quick Link II Fax into another directory, use the CD command to switch into it. 3. Type QL2FAX to run the Quick Link II main program. The startup screen appears - press the ENTER key or click OK to continue to the main screen. Sending a fax from within a DOS application Quick Link II Fax has a pop-up module called FastFax IV, Which allows you to fax out a document from within most DOS applications that allow you to print through Hewlett Packard LaserJet Series II printer driver. This does not mean that you have to own a LaserJet II; it means that your DOS application must have access to a LaserJet Series II printer DRIVER. WordPerfect, for example, can be configured to print with several printers - if you have an Epson printer, you told WordPerfect to install the Epson printer driver from the WordPerfect Install Disks. FastFax needs you to install the HP LASERJET SERIES II printer driver in addition to any printer drivers you already have configured for the programs you want to fax out of. The manual that came with your application will show you how. Printing with any other print driver will most likely not work or result in extremely bizarre looking faxes. The benefits of using FastFax are numerous. Once set up, you can send out a fax from your DOS application without ever leaving it; by simply pressing a Hot-Key on your keyboard and printing, your document will instantly fax out. In addition, all of your fonts, graphics, layout, and formatting will fax out exactly as it would print on a laser printer - true WYPIWYG (What You Print Is What You Get) faxing! Since FastFax faxes out as you "print", file formats and file conversions are completely irrelevant. FastFax has many command line options and can be configured to activate from a specific printer port. Setting up FastFax The FastFax module does require a small amount of initial setup before you can use it. First, there is a one-time need to install an HP LaserJet Series II printer driver in the DOS application(s) you wish to fax out of. Secondly, the FastFax module must be loaded into memory each computing session you want to fax out of your DOS application. Installing the HP LaserJet Series II Print Driver 1. Install an HP LaserJet Series II printer driver into your DOS program if you don't normally print to a LaserJet Series II. It may be configured for LPT1 or LPT2 (LPT1 is normal) even if you already have another printer set for that port. Most programs can have more than one printer driver installed/listed at the same time, so your normal printer shouldn't be affected. You may need to consult the documentation that came with the program if you are unsure how to do this. If, after searching your documentation and referring to the authors of the program, you cannot find or do not have access to the HP LaserJet Series II printer driver, try using DOS TEXT or GENERIC PRINTER; satisfactory faxes may result. Loading FastFax IV into memory 2. Loading FastFax into memory is very simple; in fact, it may already be in memory. If you told the Quick Link II Fax Installer program to have FastFax load into memory when you turn your computer on, you can skip ahead to the next section. Otherwise, the first step to loading FastFax into memory is to get to the DOS prompt C:\>. 3. Next, change directories to the Quick Link II Fax Install directory, normally C:\QL2FAX, by typing C:\>CD\QL2FAX Your DOS prompt should change to C:\QL2FAX>. 4. Once in the Quick Link II Fax directory, FastFax is loaded into memory by simply typing FASTFAX. The process should look something like: C:\QL2FAX>FASTFAX 5. FastFax starts to load, asking if you want to load the actual SENDING module (it asks if you want to load the TSR) if it wasn't already loaded at your computer's starting up. Unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise, type Y for yes. The hard disk will spin, your computer will beep, your screen will tell you that the FastFax module and the Send/Receive Fax module (TSR) have successfully loaded, and return to the DOS prompt. For more information about the Send/Receive Fax module, refer to the RECEIVING A FAX section, later this chapter. Faxing out with FastFax Once set up, FastFax is extremely easy to use. 1. Start your word processor or other DOS application, such as WordPerfect for DOS, Word for DOS, Q & A, Professional Write, or whatever DOS program you want to fax out of. 2. Retrieve/Open your document on screen as if you were going to print it on your normal printer. 3. Press the "ALT" and "\" keys at the same time. This is the hotkey which calls up FastFax from the background. After a moment, the FastFax dialog box appears. 4. Fill out the cover page information, such as the FAX PHONE NUMBER, the company that the fax is going TO, whose ATTENTION you want, and a short NOTE. You may also access your Quick Link Fax Phone List at this point by clicking the PHONE LIST button. When finished, press the ENTER key or click OK. 5. Print the document to the LaserJet Series II printer driver. 6. After a moment, you will hear a beep and the hard drive will spin. The document will be intercepted from the printer driver on its way to the parallel printer port and be redirected to the fax/modem which dials out and connects to the remote fax machine, and sends the fax. What you should see and hear as this happens: As soon as you print, there will be a "beeping-up" sound and your hard disk will spin. While the application is printing, you will see a dialog box saying "Converting PCL file" as the hard disk spins some more. Finally, if the send/receive module was loaded, the right side of the top line of your screen starts displaying messages, such as: "Creating Headers", "Creating Cover Page" "Dialing", "Sending Page 1", "Fax Busy", etc. When the message area on the top line disappears, the fax is completed. 7. One fax will be intercepted by FastFax each time the ALT+\ keys are pressed. To send another fax, press the ALT+\ keys again and fill out the cover page information again. If you want to print to the printer, simply DON'T press the ALT+\ keys and print to your printer's print driver, and your program will operate normally. Faxing out from Quick Link II Fax If all you need to do is fax out very simple documents quickly, faxing directly out of Quick Link II Fax makes sense. Before you fax files out, however, you should be aware of some limitations when faxing out in this manner. First, only DOS Text (batch files and such), ASCII Text (pronounced "Asky"), WordPerfect for DOS version 5.0\ 5.1 documents, and several graphics formats will convert and fax out completely. This means that document files from MicroSoft Word for DOS and Windows, PFS Professional Write, WordPerfect for DOS version 4.1/4.2 and Windows 5.1/5.2, Q & A, Lotus 123, Quatro Pro for DOS, and most other DOS and Windows programs must be converted into WordPerfect v5.0, or DOS or ASCII text files before the Quick Link II Fax main application can send them (Look in your program's manual under Export, Save As, or Print to Disk to find out how to do this). Second, only a minimum amount of formatting carries over to the converted documents - fonts, columns, and graphics are stripped away as only the basic text of the document is faxed out. If these limits are too restraining, consider using the FastFax module. Sending out faxes from the main application requires almost no prior set- up, however, and takes only a few steps. Start by running Quick Link II Fax, pulling down the FAX menu and choosing SEND FAX. This calls up the FAX DOCUMENT CONVERSION dialog box, which is where the files to fax out are selected and converted. There are two main sections to this dialog box, the FILES Available list box on the left, and the FILES SELECTED list box on the right. Your goal is to choose the file you want to fax in the FILES Available list box, highlight the file, click the ADD button to bring the file over to the FILES SELECTED list box, and click OK when finished. If you already know the file name and its directory, you could also type it in the FILE NAME text box and press the ENTER key to place it in the FILES SELECTED list box too. The location of the files in the FILES Available list box is displayed at the top of this dialog box as the CURRENT PATH, and it changes as you move from directory to directory when retrieving your files for conversion. You can change directories to locate your files by either typing the path in the File Name text box (example: typing C:\WP51\WPDATA moves you to your WordPerfect data directory) or by using the Files Available list box as a menu. You can back up one directory lever by highlighting the ".." line and pressing the ENTER key or by double-clicking on it; you can enter a directory or subdirectory by highlighting the name of the directory in brackets and pressing the ENTER key or by double-clicking it. There is already a text file called README.TXT in the Quick Link II Fax directory to illustrate faxing out in this way, so if you haven't already, pull down the FAX menu and choose SEND FAX, scroll down the Files Available list and add the file README.TXT. Since this is a text file, select the TEXT file format in the resulting FAX DOCUMENT TYPE dialog box and click OK to continue. This finally brings the file to the Files Selected list box - up to 255 files can be selected to be faxed out in this manner, but for now, just click OK to fax this one file. When you click OK, your files convert into a faxable format, which can take more than a minute on some systems, depending on the length of the original document. Once finished, your computer beeps, and calls up the FAX DIALER dialog box. To enter the telephone number of the fax recipient, simply type the number in the text box, spaces, dashes, and parenthesis can be included if you like, and click DIAL or press the ENTER key. Clicking the PHONE LIST button allows you to access entries in your Fax Phone List if you have created one. Enter a phone number and click Dial to continue. Since the default configuration includes a Cover Page with each sent fax, the SEND FAX INFORMATION dialog box appears, prompting you to include information about the Recipient for the Cover Page. This information includes the company you are sending to in the TO: text box, the specific recipient's name in the ATTN: text box, the recipient's FAX NUMBER, and a short Cover Page Note of up to 250 characters (about 50 words). Clicking OK completes the process, creates the cover Page, and sends out the fax. (br/all-11/4/94)