Product Review: WinFax

Written by: J.P.

(Want a free copy of WinFax? Click here)

       My printer/fax came with fax software. It did OK but had this nagging trick of trying to re-send a fax after I canceled it. So, I shopped around for a replacement.

WinFax, by Symantec, has become my new standard for sending faxes. It has an easy feature to build cover pages. You can make several cover pages for each type of fax. Billing, query letters, and reports with graphics, texts and even black and white photos.

It does the typical fax duties, and makes things easy. To send a fax just drag a document into the SEND icon and it pops up; ready for a destination. (The document will start at page TWO. Page ONE will be your cover page.) You can also set the program to send the fax at specific times. Such as after the rates change.

Receiving faxes has extra features. You can sort faxes into different files, have faxes forwarded to another phone, and WinFax is also ready to work on a network. I don't have my home computer on a network to test this feature.

WinFax has a scanning feature that does OCR (Optical Character Recognition) It can convert print into text. There are a few limitations, as with any OCR program. The text should be printed, not drawn, it need to be printed portrait and not landscape; and sans-serif fonts work better than serif fonts. This is useful if you want to read the incoming faxes before you print them. Also handy for moving the faxes into Wordpad and doing some cut and paste.

According to the documentation, you can work WinFax with Outlook Express. To quote from help: "If you are using Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange, greater integration is available. You may be able to view WinFax logs and messages from within your email program, or be able to view email logs from within WinFax if you are using one of these programs." You can also send the faxes as email. I got rid of Outlook Express when I got the computer.

For all these features I was still surprised to see the program sell for $119 suggested retail. I have found higher prices on the internet. Being the frugal hunter, I clicked on "Shopping" at AltaVista search engine and found prices much more reasonable. I also found some license agreements for using WinFax on a network. Be warned. Some of these read like the product, but they are NOT product, but a license for multiple use.

WinFax is very useful for a notebook computer. Since all hotels have a fax, you can write a document and have it "printed" at the hotel fax machine. I used to fax my graphic images to a local Kinko's and pick them up there. There fax made better images than my printer.