7.4

About PlanetPress Fax
What is PlanetPress Fax?
PlanetPress Fax is a service that can be used to output data and documents via a faxing software, such as Windows Fax (avail-
able with Windows 2000, XP, and Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003) or Symantec WinFax PRO, as well as via a faxing server,
such as Captaris RightFax. Note that it is these applications that do the actual faxing.
l Windows 2000: PlanetPress Fax output tasks set to use Windows Fax under Windows 2000 may fail when no one is
logged on the system running PlanetPress Fax.
l Windows XP: Windows Fax may not work properly after the Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) has been installed (refer
to Microsoft Customer service for more information on this issue). Also note that Windows Fax may take as much as
three times more time to send faxes under Windows XP.
PlanetPress Fax can be installed on any computer on your network and process all requests coming from tasks performed by
PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools on other workstations. You may choose to run it on every computer where PlanetPress Suite
Workflow Tools is running, but you may also choose to run it on computers more or less dedicated to PlanetPress Fax.
Since the faxing program must always be running and ready to receive requests from PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools, it
should be included in the Windows Startup Group.
PlanetPress Fax can associate a different fax number with each page it sends via the faxing software. For this to happen, two
things are required: each record must have a fax number specified in the job file and that fax number must be tagged as such
in PlanetPress Design (in the PlanetPress Design User Guide, refer to the section documenting Data Selections, which
includes explanations on the available PlanetPress Fax options). When the data and the document are merged, the fax number
associated with each record becomes available to PlanetPress Fax that can then pass it on to the faxing software.
Because of technical limitations, the minimum time required to generate a PlanetPress Fax document is approx-
imately 10 times longer on Windows 2000 than on Windows XP/2003.
PlanetPress Fax
PlanetPress Fax output tasks are used to make request to PlanetPress Fax, which creates faxes and sends them to a faxing
program.
In addition to the job-specific PlanetPress Fax properties you configure in the task’s properties dialog box, there are con-
figurable options common to all PlanetPress Fax outputs processed by a given computer (see PlanetPress Fax User Options).
Note that those options are specific to each PlanetPress Fax installation and that they are immediately applied.
Input
Any data file with a valid Emulation. Metadata is optional and can be used to specify the fax number and information to send
the file. Alternatively, a TIFFfile in the proper page size and compression (CCITT Group 4) can be used.
Processing
If a data file with metadata is used, the data file is merged with the selected PlanetPress Design document, converted into a
multi-page TIFF file with CCITTGroup 4 compression, and sent to the PlanetPress Fax host specified in the properties. If the
file is a TIFFfile in the proper format and the "Passthrough"option is selected, no processing is done, the file is sent as-is.
Output
ATIFF in the CCITTGroup 4 compression, and information for the FAXserver to know where to send the file.