How to Send a Fax Via Email

Sending a fax via e-mail can be done reliably with lower risk by using an online service.

Frequently people on the go want to send a fax to someone, but instead of having an original paper document to scan and send they have an electronic document, like a PDF, a MS Word Document, or some document on their PDA or Cell Phone. To accomplish an e-mail-to-fax, YOU MUST sign up for an E-Fax account or similar service first. (See links at the end of this "How-To")

Things You'll Need

• Internet access. (Yes, I know, but it must be said.)
• An E-Fax or other online service account. See the web-links in this article. (You will need a Credit card.)
• An e-mail application like Outlook, ThunderBird, Eudora, G-mail or Lotus.

Instructions

1. 

   Launch your e-mail application and create a new outgoing email message. (Yahoo Mail or Google's G-mail, and most other web based e-mail applications, work with these services.) You may also use your PDA, Smart Phone, or Cell Phone e-mail application for this tutorial.

2. 

   After you start a "new e-mail", here are a few more steps and things to know before you click "Send". In order to use whatever e-mail fax service you chose, you must send your new e-mail to that service - who will in-turn convert your e-mail and attachments automatically into a fax format. Once converted, the service then transmits your e-mail and fax documents to your intended recipient's fax-number via a regular software driven fax signal.
   Most services require that you put their e-mail in the "To" field on your e-mail application. E-Fax, for instance requires that you enter the >faxnumber< and then "@efaxsend.com", where "fax number" is the complete destination fax number, including the Country Code (US = 1), Area Code, and Local Number.) For example, to send a fax to the Chicago number [phone] you would enter "[e-mail]" in the "TO" box of your e-mail application.

3. 

   Attaching the electronic documents to your e-mail, in order to include them in the fax, is the same as attaching a document like you were e-mailing that document to a friend. Each e-mail to fax service has limitations on how many documents, what type of documents, and file size(s). So be sure to read the services provided page of their website to get the specifics. Don't forget that encrypted or password protected documents will not fax successfully.

4. 

   Send the message. Your fax will arrive at the number you typed in the destination e-mail address. Don't forget to enter a message in the body of the e-mail describing the fax you are sending.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember to sign up for a service (listed as links in this article) first.

• This article assumes that you do not desire to use a traditional fax machine, land line and printer combination.

• I recommend that it would be good to follow these steps with a test message first. Make sure and send your most typical electronic documents to a known fax machine and check out how the documents print before settling in with any e-mail to fax service.

• Always call the person you are sending the fax to, to ensure the fax arrived with the expected number of pages.

• Make sure you know what charges are associated with each type of fax you send. No surprises at billing.

• E-fax is the most popular e-mail-2-fax web service on line. Over 11 million subscribers.

• As with any "on-line" service, there is risk that data will be compromised. Make sure that what you are faxing via e-mail is not sensitive data. If you do send sensitive data via e-mail to fax, you must accept the risk that the data will be compromised in the process.

• Some business and home printers can automatically print e-mails and their attachments when they come in. Before you use a paid service, find out if your receivers have such a printer.

Resources

• E-fax
• Eudora
• More fax services on line.
• More fax services on line.
• A very cool e-mail, print software you can install.