FAXIT 1.0 Copyright 1994 by Jamal Mazrui FAXIT.EXE is a simple, free program to send a fax from DOS. You need a fax or faxmodem installed, either internal or external. Unlike other fax software, however, no CAS (Communicating Applications Specification) device driver is needed--which tends to reduce available memory. Among other things, this makes Faxit especially compatible with memory resident accessibility software used by people with disabilities. To install the program, I suggest creating a directory called FAXIT and then copying all files into it. The batch file called INSTALL.BAT can do this for you. For example, if Faxit is on a floppy disk in drive A, then you can install it with the following two commands from the DOS prompt: a: install To load Faxit, you would then use the following three commands: c: cd \faxit faxit This procedure is automated with the batch file FAXIT.BAT. For convenient operation, the batch file should be copied into a directory on your DOS search path, e.g., into C:\BATCH where other batch files are stored. This would allow you to run Faxit from any DOS prompt. Faxit relies on a utility by Simple Simon Software called SSFAXER.EXE. For your information, I've included the distribution archive, SSFAXR11.ZIP. Its documentation suggests that SSFAXER could be incorporated within a Clipper program. So, that's what I did! Essentially, Faxit provides a friendly user interface to this utility, prompting for input, checking for errors, and remembering previous values. After loading the program, answer the four questions to send a fax. The file to fax must be an ASCII text file with formatting achieved through standard characters and spaces (except as explained in the addendum). For example, the left margin would contain about 10 spaces for a one inch margin. The file name entered must exist on disk and may include a path. A fax cover sheet could be its first page. The number is the sequence of digits to dial for the destination fax machine. Besides digits, the space and dash character may be used, as well as the comma to cause a pause in dialing (such as to connect to an outside line). The port is where the fax or faxmodem is connected. It should have a value between 1 and 4. The type refers to whether your line uses touch tone or pulse dialing. Its value should be T or P. Input may be edited in typical fashion using the arrow keys, backspace, delete, and insert. Also, F6 blanks a field and Escape aborts the program. F10 saves all values regardless of the current question--thus allowing you to skip the last two questions once answered. You can create the file to fax with a text editor or word processor that allows you to save a document as ASCII or DOS text. Another approach is to use its printing capability, but selecting a disk file as the target rather than a printer port. I've included files to automate this process with WordPerfect 5.1. Take the following steps: 1. Copy the three files FAXIT.PRs, SETFAXIT.WPM, and FAXIT.WPM into the appropriate WordPerfect directories for printer and macro definitions. By default, the appropriate directory is C:\WP51. 2. Load WordPerfect and execute the macro SETFAXIT. To execute a macro, press Alt-F10, type its name and then Enter. The SETFAXIT macro will install the FAXIT.PRS printer definition. 3. To fax a WordPerfect document, you first retrieve it into WordPerfect and then execute the FAXIT macro. This will cause WordPerfect to print the current document to a file on disk called C:\FAXIT\FAXIT.TXT. If you installed Faxit in a directory other than C:\FAXIT, you would have to edit the SETFAXIT macro, replacing the reference to C:\FAXIT with the appropriate directory name. To edit a macro in WordPerfect, press Control-F10, enter its name, and then R to replace. The macro editing screen supports basic cursor movement, insertion, and deletion. When done editing, press F7 to save. 4. When the FAXIT macro is done printing to disk, it will exit WordPerfect. From the DOS prompt, load Faxit. Tell it to fax the file FAXIT.TXT. The page formatting of the Fax received will approximate that of your WordPerfect document. Faxit saves your responses in a configuration file called FAXIT.CNF, which is stored in the same directory as the program. The next time you run Faxit, your last responses will be the default values. Just press Enter to accept a value, or edit it first if appropriate. If you start typing a value without first pressing an editing key such as Delete, Right Arrow, or End, Faxit will assume it is a whole new value and clear the previous one. The default values for the file name and fax number can also be supplied as parameters to Faxit. For example, you might fax an order form to a company as follows: faxit order.frm 1-800-123-4567 I wish to thank Charlie Crawford for his contribution to the idea, design, and testing of Faxit. The program I developed is provided "as is," with no guarantees. I have tried to make it as friendly as possible, but cannot provide technical support. If you wish to contact me with feedback, I may be reached at the following electronic mail address: jamal@ksgdfs.harvard.edu ADDENDUM I have now added the ability of Faxit to detect a WordPerfect 5.1 document as the file to fax. In this case, it will automatically load WordPerfect, run the Faxit macro, and return to Faxit. It will then fax a text file assumed to be created by the macro--a file called FAXIT.TXT in the directory where the FAXIT.EXE program is located. For this to work, it should be possible to execute WordPerfect with the following command from the DOS prompt: wp where stands for a document to be loaded and stands for a macro to be run. The WP command can refer either to the program WP.EXE or to a batch file WP.BAT which accepts two or more parameters. You can still run the Faxit macro manually from within WordPerfect as described earlier.