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Faxing From Word With
ACT! And WinFax by Rich Spitz
 During the past year a number
of articles have been written about WinFax PRO and ACT!. However, I thought I
would add Word to the mix and go through some of the things that you can do when
you combine all three programs.
The important thing that many
ACT! users don’t realize is that you can create a Word document, fax it out
through WinFax PRO, and select the recipient from your ACT! database that is
displayed as a WinFax phonebook.
Installing Macros
One of the reasons it’s so easy
to fax documents from Word is because WinFax comes with a Word macro that can be
loaded when WinFax is first installed.
If you haven’t loaded the macro
and have installed WinFax, you can load it as follows: (I am using WinFax
version 9. These commands will not be the same for previous versions).
1. Click on Start, Programs, WinFax,
WinFax, Message Manager.
WinFaxTip:
If you have the controller running right-click on the WinFax Controller and
select Start Message Manager.
2. From within the Message Manager,
select Tools, The Macro Installer scans your computer for applications that
support WinFax macros. All supported programs appear in the Macro Installer
list.
WinFaxTip:
If you have upgraded to Word 2000 you need to get the
Patch to WinFax 9.03 which is on the Symantec Support web site at service.symantec.com.
Once you’ve installed the patch you will be able to install the WinFax macro
for Word 2000.
Using WinFax Macros
WinFax macros have been designed
to simplify faxing from other popular word processing and spreadsheet
applications.
Depending on the application, the
WinFax macro may add a fax command to the application’s menu and/or set up
templates and styles for mail merge documents.
To install the macro for an
application, click the application in the list, and then click Install. After
you install a macro, the Macro Installer opens a document that contains
instructions for setting up and using the macro.
If you have macro virus
protection enabled you will get a message asking if you want to Enable or
Disable macros. Select Enable macros so that the WinFax macro loads properly.
Once the macro is loaded, you
will see a menu choice under File for WinFax and an icon next to the printer
icon for WinFax. Now that the macro is installed you are ready to fax.
Since you are using ACT! you have
already enabled your primary ACT! database as a WinFax PRO phonebook.
If you haven’t, open ACT! and
go to Edit, Preferences, WinFax Options, see Figure 8, and select the Use The
Currently Open ACT! Database As A WinFax Phonebook option. Now your ready to
rock and roll.
Faxing Your Document
In your current Word document
select File, WinFax and wait until the WinFax PRO Send WinFax dialog box
appears, which is shown in Figure 9.
On the right hand side you will
see the list of available ACT! databases
Since you didn’t start with
ACT! open (which is OK) you haven’t told WinFax which contact you want to send
this fax to.
In order to do so, you select
View and Search Phonebook from WinFax and the Search dialog box opens where you
can search your ACT! database by First or Last Name, Company, and more.
Type in the information you want
and your contact comes up. Now you can click on that person, their contact
information will be filled in and you can fax it right out.
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