Even though most people use the computer for the vast bulk of office tasks these days, there are definitely times when a fax machine comes in handy. However, say you’re at home and you need to send a fax. Do you have to find a fax machine? Pay outrageous fees at the local copy shop? If you’re only sending a quick, one-time transmission, not necessarily.
Note: Most of these services offer a few free faxes initially, and then offer a paid service for further faxes.These sites are perfect for those times when you just need to send one or two faxes.
FaxZero
FaxZero gives you two free faxes a day, and if you are a very infrequent faxer (like me) than that’s all you need. Simply save the document you’re faxing onto your computer somewhere, provide the fax number and company information, and send the file; kind of like sending an email. You will receive a fax confirmation in your email inbox within 20 minutes if the fax was sent successfully.
More about this service:
“FaxZero lets you send a fax to any fax machine in the United States (including Puerto Rico) or Canada for free. You don’t need a fax machine yourself, but you do need a valid e-mail address….The easiest way to send a fax is to just type or paste the text of your fax into to theEnter Text to Fax box. Or, you can click the Browse… button to fax a file on your computer: you can send a PDF, Microsoft Word (.DOC or .DOCX or .RTF) file, image files(.PNG or JPG) or Excel spreadsheet (.XLS or .XLSX). Other supported file format include: TXT, HTML, TIFF, GIF, and PPT(Powerpoint).”
Voxox
Voxox comes in several different flavors at the time of this writing: iOS, Android, and (coming soon) Desktop. The iPhone version is the one that comes with free fax service – you can actually fax documents from within the messaging windows. More about how this works:
“You can send and receive faxes with Voxox for the iPhone and with our PC and Mac apps. While receiving faxes with Voxox is free, sending has a small (per minute) cost associated with it – a penny per minute in the U.S.
and Canada and just a few pennies per minute in other countries. You can buy credits to add to your account as you need them in our online store.”
CamScanner
CamScanner is an intriguing app that turns your mobile phone into a scanner, copy machine, and fax machine all in one fell swoop. Here’s how CamScanner works: basically, you take a picture of a document you want to share with someone else, send it to an email address, and they send this document on by fax as a .pdf file. More information:
“Easily share document scans in PDF or JPG to collaborators via email.
Or you can save them in the cloud, fax and print out those documents.
– Fax scans via network
– Send PDF files via email
– Print files wirelessly with Google Cloud Print
– Upload files to cloud storages”
PamFax
Pamfax is free to join, and new users get three free fax pages. Support for Dropbox, Box.net and Google Documents is built in to the service. If you decide to upgrade, PamFax will provide you with your own personal fax number.More about this service:
- Free to join
- New users get 3 free pages to try PamFax!
- PamFax is available for Web, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry 10
- Directly access Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and OneDrive
- Professional and Basic Plans include personal fax number
- Fax reception is free and unlimited
- Send multiple documents in one fax
- Send to multiple fax recipients in one fax
- Use PamFax optionally with Skype
- Access PamFax on your computer or via your web browser
Send a fax within MS Outlook
One of the most overlooked features in Microsoft Outlook is the ability to send a fax. Here’s more info:
“Microsoft Office 2010 has a feature that lets you send Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files as Internet faxes. This feature relies on having the Windows Fax Printer Driver or Fax Services installed on the computer to send the faxes. The Windows Fax feature is not enabled by default for all editions of Windows.
If your edition of Windows includes the driver or service, you must install it before you can send Internet faxes.”
Directions depend on which version of Windows you are using, but if you need to send a fax to someone and you would rather not sign up for one of the above-mentioned free online services, this could be a viable option.