In my home office, and other offices around the world, the “internet age” has succeeded the “fax age”, as sure as the “Iron Age” superseded the “Bronze Age”. Nothing says “Office of the Eighties” like a fax machine.

What’s the fax machine of the “internet age”? The computer, obviously, teamed with a scanner and broadband internet connection. Before we go on, let’s wax nostalgically on the technological wonder that is the fax machine.

You hand-wrote (or typed on a typewriter, or even used a “word processor” and printed) a letter on a piece of tree (paper), took it over to the fax machine, placed the piece of tree (paper) into the slot, selected a fax resolution, found the recipient’s fax number, dialed it, pushed the “Send” button, watched as the tree (paper) slid through the machine, gathered up the sent tree (paper), waited for the “Fax was sent OK” message on the tiny digital screen, then returned to your desk and threw the tree (paper) away.

Oh, wait. You actually threw away two pieces of tree (paper). The other piece was the Cover Sheet, on which you had to place Your Name, Your Address, Your Phone Number, Your Fax Number, Recipient’s Name, Recipient’s Address, Recipient’s Phone Number, Recipient’s Fax Number, Subject, and Number of Pages (did the number of pages include the cover sheet?). Without (or often with) the cover sheet, your letter ended up in a stack of other faxes, destined for mishandling at the other end. Contrast this “adventure in forestry” with the relative ease of email. Sure, a few electrons have to die in the email process, but they don’t make oxygen, and squirrels and birds don’t live in them.

If you must deal with a “Faxosaurus”, Mac OS X can help make time travel a bit more pleasant. Anything you can print, you can fax. Say you write a letter using AppleWorks. With the document open, simply select File > Print. At the bottom of the print dialogue box, click the “Fax” button. In the resulting window, you can input a fax number or select from the fax numbers in your Address Book. Fill in the Subject and add a simple text cover sheet, if you wish. Through System Preferences, you can also tell your Mac to receive faxes and either save them, email them to you, or print them.

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski