Dave Andrews
Windows fax programs have many advantages over stand-alone fax machines. With fax software, you can easily schedule fax broadcasts for off-peak hours, maintain multiple phone books, and create fax cover pages. However, too many times when I used Windows 3.1-based fax programs, a fax operation that was running in the background (e.g., sending a big fax) would interrupt an application running in the foreground (e.g., a word processor). As the fax program monopolized my system, I found myself staring at the dreaded hourglass as I tried to use my foreground application.
Delrina's WinFax Pro 7.0 for Windows 95
changes that. Thanks to support for Windows 95's improved multitasking, the beta version of WinFax Pro 7.0 that
I previewed, which should be released this month, had no problem sending a fax in the background without interrupting me as I checked spelling on my word processing document in the foreground. Version 7.0's improved multitasking is good news if you use a PC as your primary fax device.
Version 7.0 also makes use of multithreading for smoother operation. Many tasks such as file I/O, printing, and compression are now performed on separate threads. For example, the program can print a hard-copy confirmation of a successful fax transmission seamlessly in the background, a feature that makes it easier to track faxes for billing purposes than the two-step process of cutting and pasting from WinFax's send log. The same is true for WinFax Pro 7.0's support for MR compression, a standard for sending faxes up to 30 percent faster.
Other new features include consistent support for gray-scale faxing; integration of Xerox's TextBridge 3.0 OCR engine, for better fax-to-text conversion; and integration with other
messaging software through MAPI, which lets mail-centric users access WinFax capabilities through Microsoft Exchange.
If you send a lot of faxes from your PC, WinFax Pro 7.0 provides a compelling reason to upgrade to Windows 95.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
WinFax Pro 7.0...........................$129
Delrina Corp.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(800) 268-6082
(416) 441-3676
fax: (416) 441-0333
http://www.delrina.com
screen_link (40 Kbytes)
WinFax Pro 7.0 Delivers More-Reliable Faxing
