Monday, March 19, 2012

How to Fax A Doccument from Ipad

Gone are the days when you required a printer, fax machine, telephone line and plenty of time to send a simple fax. This article will walk you through the steps that will allow you to fax any document from your ipad, that too free of cost. No scanners, printers, paper, pencils or telephone lines will be involved here. We will only use one device, iPad.

Let us consider a common scenario: Your prospective employer has emailed you a form as a PDF attachment. He wants you to fill it, sign it and fax it back to him ASAP. He has also requested a copy of your state ID.

Before we get started you would need to install two mandatory and one optional app on your ipad:

Download one of many PDF form apps from itunes. The good ones that I know of include, Notability, Sign-N-Send and Form Central. These apps allow you to fill out the PDF forms on your ipad either by typing or handwriting the data on your iPad screen.

Icab browser browser has several advantages over safari, the biggest one being that you can upload documents or pictures on most of the websites. It also allows you to attach files to your email replies, something that is not possible with iOS safari browsers.

Genius scan (optional). With this paid app you will be able to scan any size document, even as large as a billboard, and save as PDF or jpeg format. Alternatively, if you do not want to spend those few extra bucks, you may take a sharp picture of the document that you want to fax with iPad's rare camera and use it instead. For exceptional fax quality, however, Genius Scan is the way to go.

Ok, so let's get started.

Press and hold the PDF attachment in your email and open the file in any of the form apps (Notability, Form Central etc).

Type or handwrite the data on the form.

Sign the form on the iPad screen.

Now, export the completed form to iCab app.

In the icab browser click on the download icon on the top right corner of the task bar. It will open the list of documents that are stored within the app. Make sure that the form that you exported from the PDF form app is present in the list. If it is not there repeat the steps mentioned above.

Now let us prepare the state ID for the fax.

Open your genius scan app. Press the camera icon and take a sharp picture of the document with iPads rare camera. Export the image to your 'camera roll'. You can also export it to iCab browser as a PDF file and it will appear in the download list.

Open the Icab browser. Make sure it is set to upload files as 'iCab' and not as 'iOS'. Here is how you should do it.  Go to settings within the icab browser. Touch Network > uploads via > choose 'icab mobile', touch done and refresh the browser. Now, log on to www.faxzero.com

Fill in your and the recipient's details on the faxzero webpage. Enter the fax number of the recipient. Domestic fax within the USA is free up to 3 pages and one fax per day. For international fax there is a charge

Click on 'select files' button on faxzero page, this will open the list of available downloads in your icab browser.

Choose the form that you just filled out. it will be uploaded immediately to the faxzero website.

Click on the second 'select files' button. Click 'photos'.

Choose 'camera roll' folder and select the image of the state ID that you just created with genius scan or iPad's camera.

Once all your files are uploaded click 'send' to send the fax.

But wait, you are not done yet. You will receive an email confirmation link from faxzero that you must click to send the fax. Wait for the second email from faxzero confirming the successful transmission of your fax.