Tablet PC + Office Internet Fax Service = Cool

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In my effort to replace analogue systems in my life with digital ones, my Tablet PC has allowed me to completely replace the need to ever use a fax machine. I can send and receive faxes anywhere that I can get an Internet Connection. I can also annotate virtually any document and send via Fax. Here's how.

Office 2003 has a new feature called the Internet Fax Service. This allows you to send a fax of any Office document via the Internet. Here at Microsoft we have an internal Fax Service (not sure how that works) but you can also get service from a company like venali.

We also have an inbound fax service. Any fax sent to a Microsoft corporate fax number is digitally delivered via e-mail. This enables some cool scenarios like:

  1. Receive forms via Fax, complete on Tablet PC (sign documents etc) and send. No trip to the fax machine.
  2. Scan any document, use Microsoft Office Document Scanning (included with Office XP and 2003), edit using Microsoft Office Document Imaging, and send.

This is a huge time saver for me.