Video:How to Send a Digital Fax

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Transcript:How to Send a Digital Fax

Hi, I’m Shane Murphy, your technology Guru for About.com. Today, we’ll discuss how to send a fax from your computer, without the help of a phone line or fax machine.

Decide on an Online Company

First you’ll need to decide on what company you want to work through to digitally fax your document. There are dozens of websites that offer this service, so picking the right one for you isn’t always easy. Fortunately, there are also websites that will compare the costs and features associated with each service.

Researching Digital Fax Companies

Whether you just want to send one fax or set up a service for sending and receiving multiple faxes for some time to come, Faxprices.com is arguably the most useful for determining which company to use. After answering the questions designed to establish how often and what kind of faxing services you’ll need, it compiles and organizes a list of each website from least to most expensive, as well as a brief description of each service.

You can then sort the list by clicking on any of the column headers. Some services will even let you send your fax for free if you’re willing to place an ad on the cover page. Once you’ve decided which company works best, simply click on the “Go” link and follow the directions on their website for setting up the service.

Converting Documents to PDF

No matter what provider you decide on for digitally sending your fax, preparing your document is basically the same every time. You’ll want to convert your document into the PDF format, since it’s universally accepted by each company and won’t give you formatting troubles.

First, make sure your document is fully edited, spell checked, and otherwise ready to send off. Convert the document to a PDF by going to “Save as” and clicking the PDF option. For older processors this may be under the sub-heading of “Print”, or be called “Print to PDF”.

Fill in Cover Sheet and Send Fax

If you plan on sending your fax with a cover sheet, fill in all the necessary information and convert this to a PDF as well. With this done, follow whatever procedures your faxing service details for uploading and sending off your fax.

Setting Up Your Computer as a Fax Machine

If you do happen to have an active phone line you can connect to your computer, you can skip the hassle of choosing a third party company and instead set up your Windows or Mac OS to send a receive faxes for free.

The procedure for setting up this service varies based on your operating system’s version, but in all cases takes just 10-15 minutes. Visit the support webpages for each respective OS’s build to find instructions. Thanks for watching. To learn more, visit About.com!