Review

Created: December, 1999

WinFax Pro Version 9.0 for Windows 95/98/NT

By Terry Fong, Cyberwalker Media Syndicate

Faxes have become an integral part of modern business. The fax is ubiquitous and, unless electronic mail or some other medium replaces this technology, the choice of a fax program is integral to the well-being of any business.

WinFax Pro, now at version 9, has evolved to meet that need. Since Symantec acquired Delrina (the original makers of WinFax) in 1995, WinFax Pro has added many useful features, all controlled through the message manager. 

It allows faxes to be assembled and sent or received, cover pages to be designed and logs and phone books to be checked and maintained.

The send dialog can be invoked directly through the message manager or from another application by selecting to print to the WinFax driver. Recipient information can be typed in or selected from one or more phone books. Faxes can be sent immediately, or scheduled for a later date, with or without a cover letter. 

Faxes can be modified in a number of ways. While sending, the order of pages can be altered. Documents can be added by attaching them. If the application used to create the file is installed, WinFax will convert them into fax format.

WinFax Pro's integrated OCR (optical character recognition) application can also scan received faxes and turn them into text. The OCR program is very good, but not perfect -- so the resulting text file will need some editing. To facilitate editing, the original image and the translation are shown in two linked panes, so moving the cursor in one pane moves the cursor to the corresponding spot in the other. 
WinFax Pro allows any fax to be annotated. 

Annotations can be merged into the fax, allowing the modified fax to be sent back to the original sender. It can also be annotated during the fax assembly.
Out of the box, this product supports the ability to use two fax/modems connected to two telephone lines. This ability allows one computer to be used to send or receive two faxes simultaneously. If desired, one could be set just to receive while the other is set just to send.

Another useful ability is fax sharing across a network. This requires only a minimal amount of networking knowledge to set up. WinFax Pro documentation, once located on the CD ROM, is helpful on this. 

Some caveats: The network must be set up using TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the main communication language for the Internet). No other protocols are supported. And, while documentation in general is adequate, far too many entries call for a lookup in the online help.

Also, security is a consideration. You can password protect fax access, but anyone with access has full access, with no logging of activity by station. In addition, a copy of WinFax Pro is required for each station attached, which could add up to an expensive proposition if you need to give access to many stations. 

The only glitch found during testing was a minor problem during installation: the program requires that a fax device be specified. As a result, during one installation attempt on a system with no modem, the setup program hung -- but with no discernible ill effects later on.

WinFax Pro does almost anything a small business requires, but all these features come at a price. The minimum stated requirements call for a Pentium-level machine with 16 Mb of RAM and a recommendation for 32 Mb. For curiosity, the program was installed on a late model 486, with 36 Mb of memory. Program execution was arthritic, but usable -- as long as one does not mind watching molasses move uphill.

Reviewer's rating: 4.5 / 5

Comments: WinFax Pro is a mature application that is feature rich and highly polished. Symantec offers a 60 day money-back guarantee, but it would be surprising if many buyers took advantage of it.

Price: $90 to $120 US