Use your fax to the max - how to make your faxes stand out - Tutorial

Home Office Computing, July, 1994 by Sarah Stambler, Abigail McLean

GIVE ME YOUR FAX NUMBER AND I'LL GET IT RIGHT OUT to you! Faxing has become the norm for business communication these days, but you could be missing out on the full benefits of this medium.

Are your fax costs out of hand? Is your incoming fax line overloaded? Do you worry that important faxes you send don't get the attention they deserve? Here are some creative solutions for saving time and money and for keeping yourself accessible.

Blow your cover. The first place to look for time and money savings is at the top--the ubiquitous cover page. Do you really need to send the full-size variety? To keep a handle on transmission times for long-distance calls and to save paper on both ends, create a cover that is only one-third of a page. Or incorporate the necessary information--the recipient's name, a contact number for you, and the number of pages sent--into a memo format or header on the first page of your document. Set this up as a macro in your word processor so you can insert the information with a keystroke at the start of your document.

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Instant effects. In a hurry? Make documents fax-ready instantly with Post-it-style notes or rubber stamps. The Great Fax Cover Sheet Co.'s Fax Cover Stix ($3 per 50-sheet pack; [213] 463-7887) measure a mere quarter of a page and fit neatly into the top margin--extending the page instead of covering up part of your document. (Most plain-paper fax machines compensate for long pages by either shrinking the image or putting overrun on an additional page.) Predesigned rubber stamps or customizable ones (add your business's return address and logo) are available at most office supply stores for $6 to $20. An added bonus for stampers: less handling and paper to file or throw away.

A great first impression. If you decide that a full-page cover sheet is the way to go, use the space to get immediate attention. Advertise and reinforce your company image on the bottom of the page. Announce special sale dates, an upcoming conference, or display your company motto or mission statement.

Prepackaged cover pages can enhance fax communications and even provide a chuckle to the receiving party. Some of these handy formats do the whole job, too--say thank you, remind a busy exec to give you a call ASAP, or give a friendly nudge to pay an overdue bill. Guerrilla Grams ($9, Corkscrew Press; [213] 660-9393) provide nearly 100 of what the publisher calls instant, tear-out, feed-in business faxes with a mission. The Great Fax Cover Sheet Co.'s Fax Six Paks ($3) offer themes ranging from simple business designs to the comic-strip character Cathy.

Design dos and don'ts. There's no excuse for annoying clients or colleagues with an illegible fax. To avoid fuzzy, unreadable type, use a clean sans serif typeface such as Helvetica or Arial; the lack of serif also speeds up fax transmission. Don't go below 10 points in type size, and keep the page airy with plenty of space between the lines.

Be especially careful when faxing graphics. Vertical lines slow down transmission. Line art is better than photographs, which often turn into murky globs that do little to spruce up a fax. If you must send a fax with photos or small type, use the fine mode. The receiving fax machine will automatically switch to fine mode and will receive--albeit more slowly--a crisper document with higher-definition output.

Finally, if you're faxing documents on letterhead, make sure your logo is legible. Check your output by faxing a page to yourself or a friend. Does the page take too long to fax? Maybe it's time for a redesign or a special run of stationery better sutied for transmission.

Hand over big projects. Almost every major online service and e-mail provider, including Compu-Serve and MCI Mail, offers a way to send e-mail as a fax, letting you send a document to a list of fax numbers nearly instantaneously. Although the convenience can't be beat--especially for those perpetually online--the price can: Online fax transmissions normally work out to around 75 cents per page.

If you're planning a major fax broadcast--such as rushing out a document to 100 or more people--take advantage of the sophisticated technology offered by fax service bureaus, which typically charge between 14 and 40 cents per page. These companies normally employ 10 to 100 or more phone lines to handle businesses' fax traffic and offer fax-on-demand services on a business's behalf. From simple lists of names and fax numbers, a service bureau can develop and send documents that include custom addressing and regionalized advertising or logos. Today, more than 400 independently operated bureaus exist (check the yellow pages under "Fax Services"), and Sprint, AT&T, and other long-distance carriers have developed similar fax services.

Infaxamation, a Denver-based fax service bureau, offers an enhanced fax service they call DeskFax Publishing. Infaxamation's tools can enhance your original document with such sophisticated design elements as a watermark--a graphic design that's shaded in light gray behind the fax's text area. The company can also convert and transmit photographs that arrive on a receiving fax in near black-and-white photo quality.