Faximum ELS/PLUS Reference Manual

for SCO OpenServer 5 - Release 2.1 - HTML Edition - Draft 1

This chapter describes various topics that are best discussed on their own yet do not warrant a separate appendix.

Signature Files

The steps to creating and using a signature file are:

1. write your signature on a sheet of paper;

2. scan or fax the signature so that it is in a TIFF file;

3. cut out the signature from the TIFF image; and

4. place the file in your home directory and tell Faximum where it is.

Each of these steps is explained further below.

Creating a Sample Signature

On a blank sheet of paper write your signature several times, leaving plenty of space between the signatures. We want to have several samples so that the one that appears best after scanning can be selected.

Scanning/Faxing Your Sample Signature(s)

There are several different ways in which you can create an image of your signature:

• You can scan your signatures in using either a scanner supported directly by Faximum or by using another scanner (possibly under DOS or WINDOWS) that generates a TIFF file. Note that the scan must be done at 200x200 dpi resolution.
• You can fax your signatures to your Faximum system and use the file created by Faximum. It is recommended that you send the fax using the Fine resolution setting on the fax machine to obtain the clearest image of your signature. Cutting Out Your Signature

To print out your TIFF file on a PostScript printer, use the tiffps program:
/usr/fax/bin/tiffps sigs.tif | lp

Note that this assumes that (a) your signatures are in the TIFF file named sigs.tif and (b) your default line printer is a PostScript laser printer (use the -d option to the lp command to select another printer). If your printer is an HP LaserJet (or compatible) use the tiffhp program in place of tiffps. Similarly if you are printing on an Epson printer use the tiffepsn program. For the interested, more information on these programs may be found in Appendix A.

Once you have a printed copy of the image, draw a rectangle around the signature you wish to place on your cover sheet and measure the distance from the edge of the page to the upper-left corner of the rectangle and the size of the rectangle. This is illustrated in the figure below.

To extract this rectangular area, use the tiffcut program specifying the four distances as follows:
/usr/fax/bin/tiffcut -x x -y y -h h -w w -o signature.tif sigs.tif

For example:
tiffcut -x 1i -y 1.4i -h 0.5i -w 3i -o signature.tif sigs.tif

This will create a new file (here called signature.tif) which contains just the signature you selected by itself as a small rectangular image. You can check that you have accurately cut out the signature by running tiffdisplay on the console. For example:
/usr/fax/bin/tiffdisplay signature.tif

It is this file that you will configure as your signature file as described in the next section

Configuring Faximum

There are two simple steps to configure Faximum to use your signature:

• Place the TIFF file containing your signature (created by following the procedure described above) in your home directory. For example, if your home directory was /usr/janed, you might name your signature TIFF file
  /usr/janed/fax/signature.tif
• Select the Preferences option to the Administration menu using the Faximum user interface, and fill in the field labelled Signature File: with the name of the file that contains your signature (in this example, /usr/janed/fax/signature.tif). See "Preferences" on page 91 for more information.

Overlay Files

To use this feature you must first create a TIFF file that contains an image of the letterhead or form that you wish to use. Then you must define a style that specifies the name of this TIFF file. Finally, you must specify this style when you go to send your fax. Each of these steps is described in detail below.

Note that overlays only affect files that are attached to a fax (see "The Attachments Form" on page 50). Overlays do not affect the appearance of the cover sheet. If you wish your cover sheet to include a logo or image of your letterhead, please refer to Appendix D.

Creating an Overlay File

There are several different ways in which you can create an image of your letterhead or business form:

• You can scan your letterhead or business form either by using a scanner supported directly by Faximum or by using another scanner (possibly under DOS or WINDOWS) that generates a TIFF file. Note that the scan must be done at 200x200 dpi resolution.
• You can fax your letterhead or business form to your Faximum system and use the file created by Faximum. It is recommended that you send the fax using the Fine resolution setting on the fax machine to obtain the clearest image of your signature. If you use this second method you may find that the received fax not only contains your letterhead or business form, but a banner across the top of the page with the name and phone number of the fax machine that sent the fax. To remove this banner, use the tiffcut program to remove the top quarter of an inch or so from the image. For example:
  /usr/fax/bin/tiffcut -y 0.25i newfax-123 letterhead.tif

  This will create a new file (here called letterhead.tif) which contains everything that was in the TIFF file newfax-123 except for the first 0.25 inches. You can check that you have accurately removed the banner by running tiffdisplay on the console. For example:
  /usr/fax/bin/tiffdisplay letterhead.tif

In some cases you will want the second and subsequent pages of your attachment to be overlayed also. You may have a distinctive second sheet that is used for the second and subsequent pages of your letters, or you may have a multi-page attachment for which every page is to appear as if printed on a business form.

This can be done by creating an overlay file which contains two pages, the first page will be overlayed on the first page of the attachment and the second page on the overlay file will be overlayed on the second and subsequent pages of the attachment. If you have two TIFF files you can combine them into a single, multi-page TIFF file by using the tiffcat command. For example:
/usr/fax/bin/tiffcat -o overlay.tif page1.tif page2.tif

Once the overlay file has been created it ought to be placed in the directory /usr/fax/coversheet and given a distinctive name. In the following examples we will assume that the file has been named /usr/fax/coversheet/letterhead.tif

Configuring a Style to Use an Overlay File

To use an overlay file it is first necessary to define a new style that references the overlay file. This is done through the Styles option to the System Administration option to the Administration menu.

The details of the various fields in the style database are discussed in "The Style Database" on page 37 while the steps to add a new entry to a database are covered in "Adding a New Entry" on page 94.

Before adding the new style it would probably be useful to examine some of the existing entries to gain an idea of how the various fields ought to be set.

Using a Style with an Overlay

There are two places where one can specify the style (and hence the overlay) to use. One can specify the style of the fax as a whole by setting the style field for the fax (see "Quick FAX" on page 43 and "FAX to Many People" on page 56).

When the style selected for the fax has an overlay file associated with it, then that overlay will be used on the first attachment. The second and subsequent attachments will not be affected.

If you wish to use an overlay with a second or subsequent attachment, it is necessary to set the style explicitly for that attachment. This can be done once the attachment has been selected by pressing the F4 key (to display the details associated with the attachment) and filling in the style field for that attachment. This is described in detail in "The Type and Style of an Attachment" on page 51.

WordPerfect Integration

To access this feature, prepare your WordPerfect document as you would any other. You may use almost any LaserJet II font that is supported by WordPerfect (see Appendix B for a complete list of fonts available with Faximum). If your system has the PCL-5 or PostScript emulator installed, you may use LaserJet III or PostScript fonts instead.

When you have created your document, press the WordPerfect Macro key and run the macro /usr/fax/lib/fax (your WordPerfect system administrator can show you how to make accessing this macro easier).

WordPerfect will format your document and pass it to Faximum. You will then be transferred to Faximum to address the fax and add any coversheet message you wish. You can even send the document to a list of people.

When you exit Faximum you will be returned automatically to WordPerfect.

Note that if you use the WordPerfect fax macro to invoke Faximum but then escape without actually sending the fax then you will be asked if you wish to keep this print file (because you wish to fax more than one WordPerfect document in a single fax) or delete it (Figure 107).

Note that selecting the delete options will not affect your original WP file.

If you do wish to send more than one WordPerfect document in a single fax, then merely escape from Faximum once you have run the fax macro on the first document (selecting the "Keep..." option when presented with the dialogue illustrated in Figure 107) and then run the fax macro on the second document. When you run the fax macro the second (or subsequent time), Faximum will verify that you do indeed wish to fax more than one document (see

Figure 108).

When multiple WP files are to be faxed, they will be attached in the order the fax macro was run.