WinFax SE (IMO)

Despite its name, the Internet Mail Only mode in Microsoft Outlook 98 and 2000 is not just for Internet messages. It also includes a very limited fax component, called Symantec WinFax Starter Edition. Version 1.0 is included with Outlook 98 and version 2.0 is installed with Outlook 2000. The two versions differ very little, so the information here applies to both versions. The only change in version 2.0 is the addition of an option for manual fax reception.

Many thanks to Russ Valentine for wrestling with the problems of setting up and using WinFax SE and providing much of the information listed here.

Setup | Usage | Notes | Limitations | Problems | Info

Setup

To reconfigure the modem:

1. Exit Outlook.
2. Run Olfsetup.exe from the Office folder.
3. Accept the default settings.
4. Restart Outlook.
5. Choose Tools | Options | Fax | Modem to see whether your modem appears correctly.

Also see:

To remove WinFax SE:

1. Choose Tools | Options | Other | Advanced Options | Add-In Manager.
2. Uncheck or remove the Symantec WinFax Starter Edition add-in. (This leaves the account information intact, but harmless, and WinFax SE will not load. If you want to completely eradicate it from your system, see OL98: (IMO) How to Remove and Reinstall WinFax Starter Edition and OL2000: (IMO) How to Remove and Reinstall Fax Starter Edition.)
3. Reinstall the Quick View component in Windows (if you use it) through Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Windows Setup.

Usage

To send a fax:

1. Select File | New | Fax Message or Actions | New Fax Message.
2. Address the message to a contact who has a fax number, or enter the phone number in the format fax@9w555-1212.
3. Enter the text of the fax, and attach any documents to be included in the fax.
4. Click Send when you have completed the fax. It will be sent as soon as WinFax can get access to the modem and phone line.
   
   -or-
   
   If you are sending to a contact who has both a fax number and an e-mail address, choose Send Using | Symantec WinFax Starter Edition. Otherwise, Outlook may try to send to the contact's e-mail address using your Internet account. See OL98: (IMO) Fax Messages Sent Using Wrong Account.

To enter fax numbers in Contacts entries so they work properly with WinFax SE:

To start a fax while viewing a Contacts folder entry:

1. Choose Actions | New Message To Contact (Note: there is no "New Fax Message" command on the Actions menu in the Contact Folder)
2. After completing the fax message, choose File | Send Using | Symantec WinFax Starter Edition.

To send a fax to someone who is not in the Contacts folder:

To choose (but not edit) your cover page:

To fax a document from within an application:

1. Make sure that Outlook has started and that WinFax SE has initialized the modem.
2. Print to the "Symantec WinFax Starter Edition" printer. Do not use the "Send to Fax recipient" command since that will launch the Fax Wizard designed to work with MSFax. 

To resend a fax:

1. Open it from the Sent Items folder.
2. Choose Actions | Resend this Message.
3. Choose File | Send Using | Symantec WinFax Starter Edition.

To receive faxes automatically:

1. Choose Tools | Options | Fax.
2. Under Modem, select Automatic Receive Fax. You can also specify the number of rings to wait before answering, the number of retries and the delay between retries.
3. Click OK. Now, whenever you start Outlook, incoming faxes will be immediately posted to the Inbox folder.

To receive faxes manually (Outlook 2000 only):

1. Leave the Automatic Receive Fax box cleared.
2. When an incoming fax call is heard, click Tools | Receive Fax

To turn off fax reception:

To view a received fax:

To clear a fax stuck in the Outbox:

To check whether WinFax SE has loaded and initialized the modem:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to display the Close Program dialog box in Windows 95/98 or the Task Manager in Windows NT.
2. Look for OLFaxMOD and Wfxmsrvr.exe. If they are not there, then WinFax SE is not ready. (Olfmod32.exe is the modem controller; Wfxmsrvr.exe is the WinFax Mail Server.)
3. Close the Close Program dialog box or Task Manager.
4. If WinFax SE was not loaded, then in Outlook, choose Tools | Options to get it to initialize.

Notes

If you're in the middle of an Internet dial-up session and you send a fax with WinFax SE, it will wait until the modem is free. This means that you can expect it to send the fax automatically 1 to 3 minutes or so after you terminate the Internet connection.

Symantec offers an upgrade from WinFax SE to WinFax Pro, available only directly from Symantec. After upgrading to WinFax Pro, run the Winfax Pro Update Utility.

If a contact contains fax numbers in more than one fax field, WinFax SE will prompt you for which fax number you want to use with the dialing confirmation dialog box. 

If you are prompted to confirm the fax number for every transmission, check to be sure the fax number is in international or "canonical" format. 

You muse have an email account configured. It doesn't have to be a valid account--you can use a fake email address and server names, it just needs to be present. See KB 196272 for more information.

Limitations

Unlike Microsoft Fax and other fax software, WinFax SE does not put an icon in the Windows taskbar system tray to show that it is active and ready to receive faxes.

There is no progress dialog box, log or send confirmation to let you know that a fax has been transmitted successfully. As soon as you send the fax, it's moved to the Sent Items folder. If the transmission fails, you will get a message in the Inbox folder.

There is no provision for manually receiving incoming faxes in version 1.0 (Outlook 98).

A message cannot be sent to both fax recipients and normal e-mail recipients at the same time.

Incoming faxes are saved with an .fxo extension and can be opened with the Quick Fax Viewer, which seems to be dependent on the Quick View component in Windows. The commercial Quick View Plus 4.5 program, which can also view these files, lists them as "CCITT Group 3 Fax" files. As far as we know, they cannot be converted to any other image file format. Symantec has also made a newer viewer available via FTP download.

WinFax SE does not support formatting in fax messages. If you need formatting, create a document and fax it. See OL98- (IMO) Formatting Lost Using WinFax Starter Edition.

You cannot do a mail merge to fax from Microsoft Word, nor can you send a document by using the File | Send to Fax Recipient command. If you need to fax a Word or other Office document, print it to the fax printer driver.

Problems

When WinFax does not send or receive faxes, the problem is usually related to configuring certain modems correctly or loading and initializing the modem. The following solutions have worked for many. Try them in this order (easy ones first):

1. Ensure your fax numbers are in the proper format (canonical or fax@...) so that the TAPI dialer will dial the number correctly.
2. Sometimes WinFax SE is delayed in loading or initializing the modem. It may take 2-3 minutes to load. Before trying any fax operation, you can force it to load and initialize the modem by simply choosing Tools | Options. You may need to do this each time you relaunch Outlook. You can check whether WinFax SE has loaded.
3. Reconfigure the modem.
4. If WinFax SE still doesn't work, choose Tools | Options | Fax | Modem. Look at the Properties for your modem. If it is not set to Class 1, Hardware flow control enabled, Initialize modem at 19,200, try to force it to those settings.
5. If it still doesn't work, obtain new drivers for the modem from the manufacturer, install them, then repeat steps 3 and 4.

If you get the error, "Unable to connect to the server: (Account: 'Symantec WinFax Starter Edition', SMTP Server: '127.0.0.1', Error Number: 0x800ccc0e')," WinFax SE is either not completely loaded or not properly configured. See OL98: (IMO) WinFax Starter Edition Gives SMTP-POP Error On Send.

In Outlook 98, WinFax SE may interfere with dial-up connections to the Internet when automatic fax reception is enabled. WinFax SE initializes the modem shortly after Outlook is launched. If a dial-up connection to the Internet is active at that time, it may be terminated abruptly. (The problem seems to be corrected in Outlook 2000.) There are three possible workarounds:

If you get an error message that the fax cannot be viewed because Quikview.exe can't be found, then you need the Windows component called Quick View. Reinstall it through Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Windows Setup.

Also see:

More Information

Updated Apr 10 2009

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