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#1
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Requirement to enter fax nos for Outlook contacts in "canonical" format - absurd!
I could not believe what difficulty I had trying to fax a Word document
using Microsoft's Fax driver! I am a 20+ year programmer, so can only imagine the frustration and wasted time of less technical folks as they try to diagnose why their attempts to fax using Windows XP and Outlook fail. Long story made short: Using XP Professional, I enter all my Outlook 2003 contacts using a number format like 111-222-3333. Outlook then reformats it to (111) 222-3333. Great, so Outlook "pretties" up the format for us automatically. Then I try to send a fax from Word 2003 using the Microsoft Fax "wizard". I checked off the box to "Use Dialing Rules", which I thought would end up inserting a 1 before the (111) 222-3333 since my 111 number was NOT in my local area code. WRONG - it does NOT dial the 1 required for making long distance calls in all the USA! Through some magical osmosis, you have to "know" to enter your Outlook/Address Book phone numbers in what Microsoft calls "canonical format", so instead of entering 111-222-3333 in my Outlook contact's fax field, I have to enter the absurd format of +1 (111) 222-3333. Whatever Microsoft engineer came up with this system should be shot I guarantee that if we surveyed 100 people, not one of them would know what "canonical" means! Now get this Microsoft logic: On the Send Fax Wizard - Recipient Information screen if you *manually* enter the Fax Number(e.g. 111-222-3333), then the wizard DOES insert a 1 for you before the area code. Why are we penalized for using the address book???? Come on Microsoft, make your fax and dialing software intelligent, and CONSISTENT. Why isn't there a setting in the Area Code Rules to address this? How come manually entered fax nos do get the 1 prefix added? Where does that "intelligence" come from? In the mean time, I hope Microsoft enjoys all the confusion this must be causing users I am always amazed at how Microsoft gets 99% of things right, but the 1% "wrong" include some real winners - like long distance dialing... |
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#2
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It's even worse than that.
Let's say, for example, that you wanted to do a mail merge to fax. In that case, international format for phone numbers will not work. Instead the fax numbers have to be in one-off format [FAX:nnnnnnn]. FWIW, international format has been a requirement for processing dialing rules forever, so at least it's consistent. And it is a simple matter to configure Outlook to add country codes automatically when you enter phone numbers. -- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] "Mike" wrote in message oups.com... I could not believe what difficulty I had trying to fax a Word document using Microsoft's Fax driver! I am a 20+ year programmer, so can only imagine the frustration and wasted time of less technical folks as they try to diagnose why their attempts to fax using Windows XP and Outlook fail. Long story made short: Using XP Professional, I enter all my Outlook 2003 contacts using a number format like 111-222-3333. Outlook then reformats it to (111) 222-3333. Great, so Outlook "pretties" up the format for us automatically. Then I try to send a fax from Word 2003 using the Microsoft Fax "wizard". I checked off the box to "Use Dialing Rules", which I thought would end up inserting a 1 before the (111) 222-3333 since my 111 number was NOT in my local area code. WRONG - it does NOT dial the 1 required for making long distance calls in all the USA! Through some magical osmosis, you have to "know" to enter your Outlook/Address Book phone numbers in what Microsoft calls "canonical format", so instead of entering 111-222-3333 in my Outlook contact's fax field, I have to enter the absurd format of +1 (111) 222-3333. Whatever Microsoft engineer came up with this system should be shot I guarantee that if we surveyed 100 people, not one of them would know what "canonical" means! Now get this Microsoft logic: On the Send Fax Wizard - Recipient Information screen if you *manually* enter the Fax Number(e.g. 111-222-3333), then the wizard DOES insert a 1 for you before the area code. Why are we penalized for using the address book???? Come on Microsoft, make your fax and dialing software intelligent, and CONSISTENT. Why isn't there a setting in the Area Code Rules to address this? How come manually entered fax nos do get the 1 prefix added? Where does that "intelligence" come from? In the mean time, I hope Microsoft enjoys all the confusion this must be causing users I am always amazed at how Microsoft gets 99% of things right, but the 1% "wrong" include some real winners - like long distance dialing... |
#3
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I have never been able to get the dialer to switch automatically from rules
for local calls to rules for long distance calls (which I use a prepaid card for) when using the address book. I have tried to use canonical and normal formats and none work. I am forced to use the manual entry and manually switch from local to long distance rules. I also use my prepaid card for local toll calls. It would be nice to have the dialer use local rules when an area code is not present and long distance rules when the area code is present even if the area code is the local area code. I would then omit the area code for local calls and insert the area code for all calls using the prepaid card. "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote in message ... It's even worse than that. Let's say, for example, that you wanted to do a mail merge to fax. In that case, international format for phone numbers will not work. Instead the fax numbers have to be in one-off format [FAX:nnnnnnn]. FWIW, international format has been a requirement for processing dialing rules forever, so at least it's consistent. And it is a simple matter to configure Outlook to add country codes automatically when you enter phone numbers. -- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] "Mike" wrote in message oups.com... I could not believe what difficulty I had trying to fax a Word document using Microsoft's Fax driver! I am a 20+ year programmer, so can only imagine the frustration and wasted time of less technical folks as they try to diagnose why their attempts to fax using Windows XP and Outlook fail. Long story made short: Using XP Professional, I enter all my Outlook 2003 contacts using a number format like 111-222-3333. Outlook then reformats it to (111) 222-3333. Great, so Outlook "pretties" up the format for us automatically. Then I try to send a fax from Word 2003 using the Microsoft Fax "wizard". I checked off the box to "Use Dialing Rules", which I thought would end up inserting a 1 before the (111) 222-3333 since my 111 number was NOT in my local area code. WRONG - it does NOT dial the 1 required for making long distance calls in all the USA! Through some magical osmosis, you have to "know" to enter your Outlook/Address Book phone numbers in what Microsoft calls "canonical format", so instead of entering 111-222-3333 in my Outlook contact's fax field, I have to enter the absurd format of +1 (111) 222-3333. Whatever Microsoft engineer came up with this system should be shot I guarantee that if we surveyed 100 people, not one of them would know what "canonical" means! Now get this Microsoft logic: On the Send Fax Wizard - Recipient Information screen if you *manually* enter the Fax Number(e.g. 111-222-3333), then the wizard DOES insert a 1 for you before the area code. Why are we penalized for using the address book???? Come on Microsoft, make your fax and dialing software intelligent, and CONSISTENT. Why isn't there a setting in the Area Code Rules to address this? How come manually entered fax nos do get the 1 prefix added? Where does that "intelligence" come from? In the mean time, I hope Microsoft enjoys all the confusion this must be causing users I am always amazed at how Microsoft gets 99% of things right, but the 1% "wrong" include some real winners - like long distance dialing... |
#4
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Calling cards that are based on individual user settings are not possible
with Windows XP Fax. It can only log on to the localsystem account. -- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] "Dennis M. Marks" wrote in message ... I have never been able to get the dialer to switch automatically from rules for local calls to rules for long distance calls (which I use a prepaid card for) when using the address book. I have tried to use canonical and normal formats and none work. I am forced to use the manual entry and manually switch from local to long distance rules. I also use my prepaid card for local toll calls. It would be nice to have the dialer use local rules when an area code is not present and long distance rules when the area code is present even if the area code is the local area code. I would then omit the area code for local calls and insert the area code for all calls using the prepaid card. "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote in message ... It's even worse than that. Let's say, for example, that you wanted to do a mail merge to fax. In that case, international format for phone numbers will not work. Instead the fax numbers have to be in one-off format [FAX:nnnnnnn]. FWIW, international format has been a requirement for processing dialing rules forever, so at least it's consistent. And it is a simple matter to configure Outlook to add country codes automatically when you enter phone numbers. -- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] "Mike" wrote in message oups.com... I could not believe what difficulty I had trying to fax a Word document using Microsoft's Fax driver! I am a 20+ year programmer, so can only imagine the frustration and wasted time of less technical folks as they try to diagnose why their attempts to fax using Windows XP and Outlook fail. Long story made short: Using XP Professional, I enter all my Outlook 2003 contacts using a number format like 111-222-3333. Outlook then reformats it to (111) 222-3333. Great, so Outlook "pretties" up the format for us automatically. Then I try to send a fax from Word 2003 using the Microsoft Fax "wizard". I checked off the box to "Use Dialing Rules", which I thought would end up inserting a 1 before the (111) 222-3333 since my 111 number was NOT in my local area code. WRONG - it does NOT dial the 1 required for making long distance calls in all the USA! Through some magical osmosis, you have to "know" to enter your Outlook/Address Book phone numbers in what Microsoft calls "canonical format", so instead of entering 111-222-3333 in my Outlook contact's fax field, I have to enter the absurd format of +1 (111) 222-3333. Whatever Microsoft engineer came up with this system should be shot I guarantee that if we surveyed 100 people, not one of them would know what "canonical" means! Now get this Microsoft logic: On the Send Fax Wizard - Recipient Information screen if you *manually* enter the Fax Number(e.g. 111-222-3333), then the wizard DOES insert a 1 for you before the area code. Why are we penalized for using the address book???? Come on Microsoft, make your fax and dialing software intelligent, and CONSISTENT. Why isn't there a setting in the Area Code Rules to address this? How come manually entered fax nos do get the 1 prefix added? Where does that "intelligence" come from? In the mean time, I hope Microsoft enjoys all the confusion this must be causing users I am always amazed at how Microsoft gets 99% of things right, but the 1% "wrong" include some real winners - like long distance dialing... |
#5
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Not sure I understand the rest of your question. Since this thread is
about Outlook, how could an area code not be present? Seems to me you need to be looking at creating rules based on the area code with different rules for the local area code than you have for the others. Creating the proper dialing rule can be complicated, but it's usually possible to accommodate any option you need, including pauses and passwords. ------ Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] Dennis M. Marks wrote: I have never been able to get the dialer to switch automatically from rules for local calls to rules for long distance calls (which I use a prepaid card for) when using the address book. I have tried to use canonical and normal formats and none work. I am forced to use the manual entry and manually switch from local to long distance rules. I also use my prepaid card for local toll calls. It would be nice to have the dialer use local rules when an area code is not present and long distance rules when the area code is present even if the area code is the local area code. I would then omit the area code for local calls and insert the area code for all calls using the prepaid card. "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote in message ... It's even worse than that. Let's say, for example, that you wanted to do a mail merge to fax. In that case, international format for phone numbers will not work. Instead the fax numbers have to be in one-off format [FAX:nnnnnnn]. FWIW, international format has been a requirement for processing dialing rules forever, so at least it's consistent. And it is a simple matter to configure Outlook to add country codes automatically when you enter phone numbers. -- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] "Mike" wrote in message groups.com... I could not believe what difficulty I had trying to fax a Word document using Microsoft's Fax driver! I am a 20+ year programmer, so can only imagine the frustration and wasted time of less technical folks as they try to diagnose why their attempts to fax using Windows XP and Outlook fail. Long story made short: Using XP Professional, I enter all my Outlook 2003 contacts using a number format like 111-222-3333. Outlook then reformats it to (111) 222-3333. Great, so Outlook "pretties" up the format for us automatically. Then I try to send a fax from Word 2003 using the Microsoft Fax "wizard". I checked off the box to "Use Dialing Rules", which I thought would end up inserting a 1 before the (111) 222-3333 since my 111 number was NOT in my local area code. WRONG - it does NOT dial the 1 required for making long distance calls in all the USA! Through some magical osmosis, you have to "know" to enter your Outlook/Address Book phone numbers in what Microsoft calls "canonical format", so instead of entering 111-222-3333 in my Outlook contact's fax field, I have to enter the absurd format of +1 (111) 222-3333. Whatever Microsoft engineer came up with this system should be shot I guarantee that if we surveyed 100 people, not one of them would know what "canonical" means! Now get this Microsoft logic: On the Send Fax Wizard - Recipient Information screen if you *manually* enter the Fax Number(e.g. 111-222-3333), then the wizard DOES insert a 1 for you before the area code. Why are we penalized for using the address book???? Come on Microsoft, make your fax and dialing software intelligent, and CONSISTENT. Why isn't there a setting in the Area Code Rules to address this? How come manually entered fax nos do get the 1 prefix added? Where does that "intelligence" come from? In the mean time, I hope Microsoft enjoys all the confusion this must be causing users I am always amazed at how Microsoft gets 99% of things right, but the 1% "wrong" include some real winners - like long distance dialing... |
#6
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Thanks for the feedback Russ, but I beg to differ about being
consistent: ie. one can enter (111)222-3333 manually in the fax wizard - and the wizard DOES prefix the number with a 1 for long distance. Manually entered numbers "magically" get prefixed with a 1, but address book numbers do not. What's consistent about that? -Mike |
#7
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WHERE does the Send Fax wizard get the instructions to prefix manually
entered fax nos with a 1? I do not recall seeing anything in the Dialing Rules. The Dialing Rules need to be enhanced: on the Edit Location-General tab there needs to be a "Prefix long distance calls with:" field - where most people in the US would place a "1". Maybe this will help others: I checked the box "To disable call waiting, dial" and filled in a 1. Now the old wizard of wizards always dials a 1 in front of fax numbers. YES, I know - it will even do it on local numbers. Fortunately Verizon allows dialing a 1 in front of local 10 digit numbers (we are using 10 digit dialing in NJ), so no problem for me... -Mike |
#8
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Want to see just how buggy this whole Fax "Wizard" is? When using the
Send Fax Wizard, click on the [Address Book...] button. Look for some contacts where you have entered fax nos in the NON-canonical format of (111) 222-3333. Look at the "E-Mail Address" column - you'll see something like "contact name@+1 (111) 222-3333". So, the Address Book screen DOES know about long distance prefixing with a "1" - it just doesn't returning the "1" prefix back to the Send Fax Wizard's Recipient screen! And speaking of crappy code - why isn't there a column labeled FAX NUMBER??????? Instead we see an E-MAIL ADDRESS column? Duh, I thought we were sending a fax You know, the more I look at this Send Fax "Wizard", the more it stinks of a sloppy third party job. My guess is that Microsoft paid somebody (Symantec?) to develop a limited fax interface. Limited doesn't have to equal poorly designed and untested, does it? OK, being a programmer I've finally vented all my complaints about the faxing abilities of XP and Office. Nuf said |
#9
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You have not provided enough information for a response. I do not know
which address book the Fax Wizard is using because you did not tell me. I was talking about the need to use international format to process dialing rules by the Fax Service. That has been very consistent since the dawn of Microsoft Fax in Windows 95 and has been very well documented in the KB for 10 years. ------ Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] Mike wrote: Thanks for the feedback Russ, but I beg to differ about being consistent: ie. one can enter (111)222-3333 manually in the fax wizard - and the wizard DOES prefix the number with a 1 for long distance. Manually entered numbers "magically" get prefixed with a 1, but address book numbers do not. What's consistent about that? -Mike |
#10
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Being "consistent", just for the sake of being consistent is not
necessarily a good thing Especially when the code is as flawed as I point out. I'd rather the next version NOT be consistent with the last 10 years... If software remained consistent, bugs would never leave us Just out of curiousity, how do you think the typical, non techy, user of XP and Office find out about the "canonical", or as you call it "international" format required for entering fax nos (phone nos for dialing I presume too?) so that Dialing Rules work as one would expect? Outlook 2003 has never popped up any suggestions to this effect, and always accepted my phone/fax number entries without complaining. And, the fact that it formats the numbers by adding parentheses and hyphens led me to believe it fully understood my numbers. I guess that was a bad assumption on my part... Lastly, why isn't the Fax wizard fully aware of what country I'm calling from? I've set up Dialing Rules, a time zone and numerous other settings that should make Windows and all applications aware of where I am calling from. Am I missing something here? Russ, I do appreciate you telling us all the solution to working around this awfully unintuitive Fax Wizard. But I just want to ask: you don't applaud its inner workings - do you? Cheers, -Mike |
#11
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In XP's Fax Wizard, I simply click on the [Address Book...] button in
upper right. That pops up a window titled "Address Book". On the Address Book screen I click on the dropdown labeled Show Names From: and select any of my Outlook 2003 Contact folders from the dropdown list - then pick a contact from one of them... So I am working with Outlook type address books... |
#12
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You will find no more severe critic of the Windows XP Fax Service and
its integration with Outlook than I. Nevertheless, the shortcomings are not quite as great as you allege. I still suspect you have simply not configured your Outlook installation to add the country code automatically to your phone numbers and have not paid sufficient attention to the construction of your dialing rules. Dialing rules are not an Outlook issue. I don't have to use them and cannot help you with them. But I'm sure there are users in the Windows XP telephony groups who can help you with their construction if you post the details of the trouble you are having. Finally, very few users find Microsoft Fax products acceptable. Most have moved on to third party products--as they should. ------ Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] Mike wrote: Being "consistent", just for the sake of being consistent is not necessarily a good thing Especially when the code is as flawed as I point out. I'd rather the next version NOT be consistent with the last 10 years... If software remained consistent, bugs would never leave us Just out of curiousity, how do you think the typical, non techy, user of XP and Office find out about the "canonical", or as you call it "international" format required for entering fax nos (phone nos for dialing I presume too?) so that Dialing Rules work as one would expect? Outlook 2003 has never popped up any suggestions to this effect, and always accepted my phone/fax number entries without complaining. And, the fact that it formats the numbers by adding parentheses and hyphens led me to believe it fully understood my numbers. I guess that was a bad assumption on my part... Lastly, why isn't the Fax wizard fully aware of what country I'm calling from? I've set up Dialing Rules, a time zone and numerous other settings that should make Windows and all applications aware of where I am calling from. Am I missing something here? Russ, I do appreciate you telling us all the solution to working around this awfully unintuitive Fax Wizard. But I just want to ask: you don't applaud its inner workings - do you? Cheers, -Mike |
#13
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I'll search Outlook and try to find the place where I can configure it
to auto-insert the country code (1). Why am I trying to insert a country code when I am simply dialing within my country? Hmmm, I guess I never thought of the long distance 1 prefix as a country code. I thought country codes only applied to international calls. Your solution sounds similiar to the trick I found, where I checked "To disable call waiting, dial ..." in the Dialing Rules. Either way we're using a band-aid approach I've looked at the Control Panel's Phone and Modem Options applet, Dialing Rules, Locations etc. and find no place where one can indicate to dial a 1 for long distance calls. The closest is the "to access an outside line for long distance calls, dial ..." located on the Edit Location screen's General tab. But that setting, if enabled, dials the specified digit(s) then *waits* for a dial tone, then dials the number. We need it to first wait for a dialtone, then dial the long distance prefix, then the number. This setting is really meant for business or hotel PBX systems where you have to enter a code to get an outside line/dialtone... So my original criticisms remain - why isn't Windows smart enough to provision for dialing of the standard 1 prefix that 99% of US folks have to dial? It should be easy to find, configure etc. - instead this feature is entirely missing or so ridiculously hidden somewhere as to be essentially useless. Folks should not have to research how to do this - it should be so blatantly obvious that even the most nimble novice can figure out how to make calls. Now I know how my computer consulting client's feel when Windows doesn't work intuitively God help me if I have to explain this silliness to them |
#14
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I did find the setting you described in Outlook: highlight your
Contacts folder, then Actions-Call Contact-New Call-[Dialing Properties...]. Put a check next to "Automatically add country code to local phone numbers". But it seems this only works on new contacts that you add to Outlook. Your existing contacts do not get updated with the +1 country code (USA). So with hundreds of entries this doesn't help me much. So back to using my band-aid: just edit my Location to always dial 1 in the field "To disable call waiting, dial ___". Not elegant - but then again neither is this crazy Send Fax wizard. The frustrating part is that the underlying fax engine is quite solid - it''s the GUI that is lacking. It would just go against my grain to purchase a 3rd party product when XP is so close to having it all right there. They just need to fire the original programmer(s) and have someone else clean up these remaining details... |
#15
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Not sure how many times I need to explain that International format is
required to trigger dialing rules. It has been documented countless times over the years. Details on how to use international format to invoke dialing rules are available he http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q318575 The KB is also replete with information on how to create dialing rules. -- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] "Mike" wrote in message oups.com... I'll search Outlook and try to find the place where I can configure it to auto-insert the country code (1). Why am I trying to insert a country code when I am simply dialing within my country? Hmmm, I guess I never thought of the long distance 1 prefix as a country code. I thought country codes only applied to international calls. Your solution sounds similiar to the trick I found, where I checked "To disable call waiting, dial ..." in the Dialing Rules. Either way we're using a band-aid approach I've looked at the Control Panel's Phone and Modem Options applet, Dialing Rules, Locations etc. and find no place where one can indicate to dial a 1 for long distance calls. The closest is the "to access an outside line for long distance calls, dial ..." located on the Edit Location screen's General tab. But that setting, if enabled, dials the specified digit(s) then *waits* for a dial tone, then dials the number. We need it to first wait for a dialtone, then dial the long distance prefix, then the number. This setting is really meant for business or hotel PBX systems where you have to enter a code to get an outside line/dialtone... So my original criticisms remain - why isn't Windows smart enough to provision for dialing of the standard 1 prefix that 99% of US folks have to dial? It should be easy to find, configure etc. - instead this feature is entirely missing or so ridiculously hidden somewhere as to be essentially useless. Folks should not have to research how to do this - it should be so blatantly obvious that even the most nimble novice can figure out how to make calls. Now I know how my computer consulting client's feel when Windows doesn't work intuitively God help me if I have to explain this silliness to them |
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