How to Fax From Your Computer

You can send a fax from your computer, even if you don't own a fax machine. If you only need to send a fax occasionally, there are free services that let you send a couple of faxes a day for no charge, just for allowing them to include an ad on the first page of the fax.

If you need to send dozens or hundreds of faxes a week, other online or email fax services charge a monthly or per-fax fee, but may be more convenient or cheaper than purchasing a fax machine and a separate phone line.

Paid fax services that let you fax from your computer also have more special features, such as fax scheduling or notifications to your cell phone when you receive a fax, and you'll also receive a fax number that others can use to send faxes to you, either through their computer or fax machine. Paid fax services also usually offer free trials, so you can test them out first.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. To send a fax from your computer, find a fax service by searching for "online fax" or "email fax." If you only need to send one short fax, or only a couple of faxes a day, include the word "free" in your search. If you have just one long fax to send, some services allow you to pay a one-time fee to send ten pages or so. If you're looking for an ongoing regular fax service, compare the various features and monthly charges of different companies.

2. Create the document that you want to fax from your computer. Depending on the fax service, you can generally send plain text, a PDF file, a Microsoft Word document, or an Excel spreadsheet.

3. If you're using a typical free email fax service, go to the company's website, enter your email address, the number you want to send the fax to, and the text or document you want to fax from your computer. You'll be sent a confirmation message with a link which you click to confirm, and your fax is sent. A typical paid fax service may have you log into your account at their website and follow the steps to send a fax from your computer. Other fax services offer software to download, which makes your scanner operate like a fax machine. Depending on the service you choose, you can receive or send faxes from your computer with all the features that an actual fax machine would offer.

[grammastacie]

on 11/8/2009 great need to know article. 5* and recommend!