subject: What Is A Fax? [print this page] Some people assume that the era of email and modern technology have done away with past technologies in the office place. This can be true for a lot of things, but there are some things that are still available today. Did you know that a fax machine is still a staple office tool? That's right, a machine that sends information from paper to aro6und the world is still a valid resource, even in today's era of high speed internet.
A fax machine doesn't require elaborate instructions. The machine is simple: the top of the machine features a number key pad with phone, and an area where you can feed paper into it, and send it to another machine thousands of miles away. This is similar to what can be done with an email, but a fax provides a direct way to send a hard copy document hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Let's assume you're at an office in Los Angeles and you need to send a document to someone in Tokyo, Japan. The document is a physical document that you don't have a digital version of. You need to send it to them right away, and they need to be able to sign off on the information that is on the paper. What do you do? Well, you could go with the new route of sending information by scanning the paperwork one by one into a scanner, then send it in a pdf or jpeg image or you can go with the alternative.
The alternative route is a fax. The fax takes the papers and copies them, much like a scanner would scan them, and then sends them over to Japan right away. Within minutes the Tokyo office has the paperwork in full view, readable and printed out, and they can sign off on whatever the information is.
While many younger people are not keen on using faxes, many offices that have a lot of paperwork to sort through that may require signatures. They utilize fax machines on a regular basis. Some people assume that these are archaic pieces of technology, but their continual use is something that many people still have in their modern offices.
The next time you're in an office, look around, and you will probably see this machine still used in many arenas. People still rely on them more than just scanning documents into a scanner and sending documents electronically. If you don't have a digital source, this option is worthwhile.
