Siebel Communications Server Administration Guide > Communications Operations for End Users > Sending Email, Fax, Page, and Wireless Messages >

Sending Faxes

You can send a fax, optionally including Siebel application content, to any recipient. Fax addresses can be retrieved from the Siebel Database, such as for faxes to employees or contacts.

Whether the Pick Recipient dialog box appears after Step 2 in the following procedure depends on what kind of data currently has the focus when you choose the Send Fax command:

• If the current record is a person, such as a contact or employee, then the Pick Recipient dialog box does not appear. The Send Fax window appears.

  NOTE:  In order for the fax activity record to be associated with a recipient derived from the current record (such as a contact or employee), the fax addressing information in the To, Cc, or Bcc line must not be changed. In addition, the fax addressing field must have been configured in Siebel Tools for your deployment.

• If the current record is an element such as a service request or account, then the Pick Recipient dialog box appears if generic recipients have been configured. Choose generic recipients such as the contacts associated with the current service request.
• If the current record is a Siebel attachment or literature item, then the Pick Recipient dialog box does not appear. The Send Fax window appears, and the item is added as an attachment to the pending fax message. (Siebel attachments of type URL are not added as email attachments.)

To send a fax

1. Optionally, select one or more records of contacts, employees, or other persons for whom fax numbers are defined in the Siebel Database. Alternatively, select one or more records of attachments or literature items to send as attachments to the fax message.
2. Do one of the following:
   • From the application-level menu, choose File > Send Fax.
   • Press Ctrl+F9.
   • Click to the right of Initiate Work Item on the communications toolbar, and then click Send Fax, or click Initiate Work Item when the displayed ToolTip text is "Send Fax." See also Initiating Work Items.

     The Pick Recipient dialog box appears, if you did not specify recipients in Step 1. If you chose recipients before invoking the command, the Send Fax window appears; go to Step 4.

3. In the Pick Recipient dialog box, specify the recipient or specify no recipient yet.

   The available recipients to choose from depend on the application context. For example, if Send Fax was invoked from a Service Requests list, the choices are Service Request Contact and Service Request Owner.

   The Send Fax window appears.

4. For the From field, specify the profile to represent who is sending the message.

   The profiles listed are those created for communications drivers that support email or fax, such as Internet SMTP/POP3 Server. In some cases, a profile may be inserted automatically. You can specify a default profile in the User Preferences screen, Outbound Communications options.

5. For the To, Cc, or Bcc fields, do one or more of the following:
   • Verify any recipients that were inserted automatically in previous steps.
   • Type any additional recipient fax addresses, using the appropriate format for your fax integration.
   • Use the address book to enter additional recipients. Click the To, Cc, or Bcc button and explicitly specify individual persons from the address book dialog box. For each intended recipient, check the To, CC, or BCC check box. After specifying all recipients, click OK. Verify that the addresses appear correctly.
6. Optionally, for the Body drop-down list, choose the name of a communications template (of type Body) to insert into the message body.

   A template may be configured to be inserted automatically, according to where you invoked the Send Fax command. (Administrators: for more information, see Configuring Default Templates for Send Email Command.)

   Field substitution applies to template text upon insertion. For substitution to work correctly, the fields must exist in the current list or form (containing the focus) in the Siebel application.

   You can insert more than one template. Any template you choose is appended to the existing text.

   Templates listed here are subject to filtering based on several factors, including channel, language, locale, and whether the template is HTML or plain text. For details, see Template Visibility and Access.

7. Optionally, verify or enter text for the subject line.

   Text may have been inserted into the subject line automatically when you chose a template.

8. Optionally, enter and format free-form text, or modify or add to the template text you inserted in Step 6.

   For information about the available text-editing controls, see Editing and Formatting Controls for Send Email and Send Fax.

9. Optionally, if you are editing in plain text mode, you can click the Remove HTML Tags button, at upper right, to remove any HTML tagging that may be present in your message text.
10. Optionally, click the icons on the lower right to specify operating system files ("paper clip" icon) or literature items ("document" icon) as attachments to the fax message.

    The attachments icon lets you specify files from the operating system as attachments, and displays a list of all files and literature items previously specified for the fax message.

    The literature icon displays a list of literature items you can specify as attachments.

    The Attachments field displays the most recently specified attachment, if more than one attachment has been specified. All fax attachments are saved as attachments to the activity record that is created when the message is sent.

11. Optionally, check spelling for your message.
12. Click Send, or click Cancel if you decide not to send the fax.

    NOTE:  If you cancel the fax, the corresponding Siebel activity record (created to track the send operation) is deleted.