How To Use a Plain Paper Fax Machine

Everyone in the civilized world will be aware of the famous photocopier (even being referred to as a Xerox machine, after the company who popularized photocopying)! The objective of a photocopier, as the name suggests, is to make an identical copy of the original document. The basic plain paper fax machine can be regarded as an extension of this copier, the difference being that the copy is transmitted via phone line to an intended recipient.

The objective in this case is to transmit a document to a recipient who is geographically located in a different location and has a similar fax machine installed on his premises. The advent of the fax machine was probably over a century ago. The first available evidence is of Alexander Bain patenting the fax design way back in 1843. From this day onwards the technology has evolved tremendously. Today, faxing a document can be achieved without the physical copy of the document and can be done via a computer that is directly connected to a fax gateway.

The good old plain paper fax machine has 2 main purposes:

• Send a Fax
• Receive a Fax.

Sending a Fax
This as the title suggests involves sending of a document through the fax machine to a person in another location. The do's for sending a plain paper fax are listed below:

1. Ensure that the fax machine is switched “ON”. The machine is connected to a power source and is ready for use.
2. Ensure that the machine is connected to a phone line capable of being used as a fax line.
3. To send a fax the recipient’s fax number is also required.
4. Sort all the documents you want to fax and number them with a pencil, to ensure all the documents are sent and received in the order intended.
5. Now for sending the document, the following steps need to be taken:

(a)    Prepare a brief coversheet detailing the name of the recipient as the attention party; this is because typically in an office environment one fax machine is shared by multiple users.
(b)    The other details should be number of pages and a brief message if any, along with the sender's name and contact details. This coversheet has to be faxed first before any of the actual documents are sent across.
(c)    The documents have to be kept printed-side facing upwards on the feeder tray of the fax machine.
(d)    Once the documents are ready, the fax number of the recipient has to be dialed.
(e)    Once the connection is established, the “SEND” or “FAX” button has to be pressed to initiate the transmission of the documents.
(f)    Once the transmission has been successful for all the documents, there is usually an option to print the confirmation receipt on the fax machine; this is for the sake of good order, since the fax mode is more often than not used to transmit important documents.

Receiving a fax
This part will deal with the steps in receiving a plain paper fax document, the recipient’s part:

1. The fax machine has to be plugged in and powered ON as well as connected to a live phone line.
2. The fax machine should have sufficient toner and paper/paper rolls to receive the fax.
3. All fax machines also come with a handset like in normal phones and the machine also rings like any ordinary telephone. What the recipient has to be aware of is not to lift the handset to answer the call.
4. Since it is a fax machine, the call will be answered by the fax machine as a response of readiness to accept the documents being faxed.
5. The machine will start receiving the documents and start printing them.
6. The recipient has to reconcile the coversheet (if sent) with the actual number of pages received and highlight if there is an anomaly.

Finally, it is a matter of etiquette for the sender to call and confirm that the documents have been faxed and for the receiver to confirm that the documents have been received.