The user interface for Snappy Fax Version 5.0 is centered around the Microsoft Fluent UI interface. Users of the
latest versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and other products are already familiar with this interface.
Buttons are located on 'ribbon tabs' to divide them into groups by functionality, they are pictured below with
descriptions following.
Fax Home Ribbon Tab
Fax Receive Mode button
The fax receive mode button is used to turn fax receive mode on or off. The button's caption indicates the current state of receive mode. When receive mode is on the button remains in a lowered or pushed state, clicking the button toggles it's state to or from the pushed state and change the state of fax receive mode. When fax receive mode is off , the modem will not answer incoming calls and will not receive faxes.
Receive Mode Scheduler button
Use this button to activate, deactivate or change the constraints of a receive mode schedule. Refer to the Special Topics section in this help file for more information about using the Receive Mode Scheduler.
Receive Manual Fax button
A manual fax is a fax that is received over an already existing telephone connection. That is the modem did not answer the incoming call but the call is already in progress. Use this button when you want to receive a fax over an existing telephone connection. For example, you are having a voice conversation with another party and they want to send a fax to you during that connection.
Note: some modems will 'prefer' that the telephone receiver is left off hook while the fax session is in progress, while others will 'prefer' that the receiver be hung up when the modem begins negotiating the fax session with the remote fax. You may need to experiment to determine which is best for your particular modem.
Send Cover Page Only Fax button
Use this button to send a fax that will only consist of a cover page and nothing else.
Send a Manual Fax button
Sending a manual fax is the reverse of receiving a manual fax (see above). You should already have the image you want to fax loaded in the snappy fax image viewer before clicking this button. The modem will go off hook, attempt to negotiate the session with the remote fax and transmit the image in the image viewer. The last comment above under receive manual fax regarding the telephone receive applies to sending a manual fax as well.
Draft Mode On/Off
Use this button to turn draft mode on or off. See: What is Draft Mode ?
Open File As Image
You can open a file directly into the snappy fax image viewer.
The following file types are supported:
•Tiff Files (*.tif,*.tiff)
•Jpeg Files (*.jpg,*.jpeg)
•Bmp Files (*.bmp)
•PNG Files (*.png)
•PDF Files (*.pdf)
•Text Files (*.txt)
•APF Files (*.apf)
•Open Office Text (*.odt)
•Open Office Spreadsheet (*.ods)
A most recently used list is maintained for this button with the 20 most recently used files. If you click on the caption part (lower) of this button you can choose from the list of MRU files. Clicking on the icon part (upper) of this button will present a file open dialog from which you can choose the file you want to open.
These file types can be converted natively by snappy fax to an image that can be loaded into the image viewer, with the exception of
.txt files which are processed using notepad.exe via the snappy fax printer driver to convert the text to a tiff image.
Open Word Document
Note: Microsoft Word must be installed on your system to use this feature.
The functionality of this button is identical to the previously discussed Open File As Image button except the only file types that can be selected are .doc, .docx or .rtf files.
This process involves opening the selected document for printing by calling Microsoft Word, printing to the Snappy Fax Printer to convert
to a tiff image and then loading in the image viewer.
Open Excel SpreadSheet
Note: Microsoft Excel must be installed on your system to use this feature.
The functionality of this button is identical to the previously discussed Open File As Image button except the only file types that can be selected are .xls, and .xlsx files.
This process involves opening the selected document for printing by calling Microsoft Excel, printing to the Snappy Fax Printer to convert
to a tiff image and then loading in the image viewer.
Scan a Document
Use this button to scan documents from your scanner.
Save to User Database
If you want to save the image that is currently loaded into the image viewer to the user database click this button. The image will
be stored where you can later recall it from the user database.
Save to File
Use this button to save the image loaded in the image viewer to a file on your computer. You can save the image it either .tif, .pdf or .dcx formats since these are the only multi-page formats. You cannot save to a jpg file, it is a single page format.
Print this Image
Use this button to print the image that is currently loaded into the image viewer.
Fax this Document
Click this button to fax the image that is currently loaded into the image viewer with Preview. If you want to print to the default printer without preview, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking this button.
Fax selected pages
If the image loaded in the image viewer consists of more than one page, this button will become available. You can use it to select one or more pages to fax when you do not want to fax all pages in the image.
Image Annotation Tools
There are eleven annotation tools that can be used to annotate or 'mark up' an image that is loaded into the image viewer. Park the mouse
over a button to see a hint to the type of annotation supplied by a particular button.
Annotations are much improved over previous versions of snappy fax. Click the annotation tool you want to apply to the image, the button will remain in a pushed state. Position the mouse to the part of the image where you want to apply the annotation and then click the mouse.
The annotation will be applied to the image at that position and the annotation tool button will return to the up state and annotation pointer tool will become selected as the current tool button. Note: when using the straight line tool, click the mouse at the starting point of the line, drag the mouse to the desired end point while holding down the mouse left button, release the mouse button at the desired end point. The process is the same for the freehand line except you should double click the mouse button at the end point when you are finished drawing.
You can use the 'Delete' annotation button to delete a previously applied annotation. Don't forget to use the 'Burn in' button to make annotations permanent. If you print, fax or save an image without burning in, the annotations will not be a part of the image. Once you burn in annotations, they are permanent and cannot be removed without using the eraser tool to blank out the annotation.
Tools & Accounts Ribbon Tab
Address Book
Use this button to add contacts to your address book and perform other tasks available from the Address Book Maintenance screen.
Email Accounts
Use this button to add, change or delete email accounts. Snappy fax needs its own email account setup to perform certain mail tasks like forwarding incoming faxes to email addresses, etc.
Cover Sheet Designer
This button will access the Cover Page Designer screen from which you can create, maintain and otherwise manage your cover page templates.
Print Blank Cover Page
Allows you to choose a cover page template, fill in information and print the cover page to your printer. This function would not normally be used in everyday fax operations as snappy fax will automatically prepare the cover page and include it as part of the fax. This feature was added at the request of a user.
Utilities Ribbon Tab
Repair/Optimize Database
You can use this button to access the Repair/Optimize utility in case there is a need to repair or optimize the snappy fax database.
Relocate Data
Snappy fax by default chooses the location of its data files. You can use this utility to relocate the data to another folder. It is generally
recommended that this is bad practice as the files are located in the user's appdata folder recommended by best practices advisories
from Microsoft. Note that each user account has his/her own database and the database cannot be shared with other users of snappy fax on the same computer or on other computers on a network.
Merge Data
Use this button to merge data from another snappy fax database into your current database.
Import From Prior Version
Use this button to Import your fax data, address book entries, email accounts and other information from snappy fax version 4.
Import Other Fax Files
You can import tiff files to the database using this utility. This process involves a substantial amount of input on the part of the user since there is not way to tell from simply selecting an image file who the fax image was sent to or receive from, etc.
Reports & Lists Ribbon Tab
Print Fax Reports
Use this button to select and print standard reports supplied with snappy fax.
Report Designer
You can design your own custom reports but be warned this is a daunting task and not for the faint of heart or casual computer user.
A separate document is provided with the snappy fax distribution on the usage of the report designer, it is beyond the scope of this help file.
Report Book Listing
Prints the standard address book reports distributed with snappy fax.
Create HTML Report
Use this button to create a report of incoming faxes in html format and publish to a website. Refer to the topic on Publish to Web.
Help & Support Ribbon Tab
Technical Support
Use this button to generate a report of technical information about your computer and snappy fax configuration. You can
email this information to snappy fax technical support from the Tech Support screen. Any time you request tech support you should send your tech data.
Check for Software Update
Use this button to determine if you have the latest update to snappy fax.
Apply License Key from File
Use this button to apply a license key sent to you after you have purchased a license for snappy fax.
Snappy Fax Help
Use this button to access the help file you are now reading.