PageSender 4.0: Listen to Your Customers
If there’s one lesson to over five years in business shipping PageSender, that lesson is: listen to your customers. You folks are great. You use the product, buy the product, tell your friends about it, and you tell us what you need.
We shipped PageSender 4.0 this Tuesday, and it seems to have gone over well. You’ve asked for spam filtering and snazzier covers for some time, and we’re pleased to be able to deliver.
Frequently, people ask why it’s called PageSender and not FaxSender or PageFaxer. The answer is that PageSender 1.0 didn’t start out with support for faxing. PageSender was designed to make it easy to Email anything you could print, directly from the print dialog (and you can still do that today).
Almost immediately after PageSender 1.0 shipped, customers and potential customers wrote asking for fax modem send support. We delivered two months later. Then they asked for receive support. We delivered another two months later. In a short time, PageSender became fax software, and before long it became full-featured fax software. It’s not what we’d planned, but it’s what our customers wanted.
So, thank you for all your feedback! Keep it coming. We’ll continue to listen to what you need and to deliver it.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Unfortunately, PageSender 4.0 dramatically fails to live up to its previous versions.
After installing the update on a 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac running OS X 10.4.9, we’ve had nothing but problems using PageSender.
You used to be able to tab through the buttons in the Print Dialog box in order to select the Add button without using a mouse - that feature no longer works, even with ‘Enable access for for assistive devices’ selected in the Mac’s Universal Access preference pane. PageSender’s live addressing feature doesn’t work at all now. With “Enable live addressing” selected in Preferences, typing in either the To or Company fields doesn’t pull up any Address Book entries, whether Address Book is open or not. And now having the cover page in a separate tab in the Print Dialog box is now very inconvenient.
The cosmetic updates are nice, but usability has taken a pretty bad hit in version 4.0.
May 15th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I am registered user of the latest version 4.0.1 and I am running into issues:
In the Fax Center it incorrectly reports the number of pages.
If I choose “View” in the Fax Center, it only allows me to see the very first page whether it be a cover sheet, if one is included, or the document.
I am getting artifacts in the print dialog window.
It sure would be nice to have selection of the different senders as I represent several entities and would like to tailor faxes accordingly (Global Village had that down quite well).
I did a clean install for this version—completly removing all Page Sender files via File Buddy.
Thanks
May 15th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I forgot to add that I would like to have a Quick Fax feature whereby I can simply call-up PageSender and zip off a combination cover sheet/fax one page. Thanks.
May 15th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Hi Jim — I think you’re running up against a change Apple made to the Preview application mid-10.4. When you open a multi-page TIFF file in Preview, it only shows the first page and does not automatically open the drawer. If you select View -> Drawer then click the disclosure triangle, you’ll see all the pages in your sent fax.
Probably the best way to support multiple senders is to create multiple covers and replace the <PAGESENDER-SENDER> tag with an explicit sender name.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Hey guys,
do you have any intention to follow a better standard for fax communication than just the ITU T.30 protocol? Have you ever heard about the DTS, a communication standard used in Europe and followed by most of the world leading fax manufacturer. This DTS ensures that communication between faxes is really correct and gives detailed information if something goes wrong. I am looking for this for a long time, but programmers never act on this. If you are interested, I can give you a copy of the standard to look at.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
Hi Oliver - I don’t know that we’ll be expanding into new fax protocols. I suspect the chief issue is whether DTS is supported by the Apple modems followed by whether it is sufficiently in demand from our customers. You’re the first to ask for it. I’ll definitely add your note to our feature request list so that we can track this.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:19 pm
This software is a great idea but new Macs don’t have phone inputs anymore. Will it ever work through ethernet/cable internet?
May 31st, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Faxing ultimately requires a voice phone line. PageSender can usean external modem (such as the Apple USB External Modem or the Zoom 2986) to connect to a voice phone line directly. PageSender can also serve as a client for several fax-via-Email services (efax.com, jConnect, MaxEmail, EasyLink, RapidFax, Send2Fax) which maintain the phone line and modem for you (and charge you a fee for that service). Since faxing occurs over a voice phone line, it has nothing to do with DSL or cable modems. You can fax using a voice line which is also running DSL, just as you can make voice phone calls with the same line. One advantage to the fax-via-Email services is that you can avoid tying up your voice line if you have a DSL or Cable modem as your Internet connection because your E-mail will be sent via your DSL or Cable modem, but again you pay for the privilege.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
While I’m receiving faxes regularly, I am unable to send them out.
I’ve followed the instructions, but the jobs just STOP.
Need some help.
Have uninstalled and reinstalled the print drivers without success.
HELP!
June 27th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Support concerns are best addressed by mailing: support@pagesender.com. We’re engaged with Gene to try to resolve his problem via Email.
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:55 am
Boy I haven’t had a fax now for a few months. Something is broke, talked with Pagesender tech support through email, sent my log in all is OK but still the fax does not work. I need a solution and don’t have one. Sorry guys it’s just not working. The external USB Apple modem does not pick up and as you have seen and confirmed all my settings are correct and the Apple external USB modem works fine for sending so it’s not the modem (and to make sure I used another known working modem with the same result). I am running a PPC G5 2.7 Ghz DP running OS X 10.4.10 and all other updates (this has been happening since 10.4.9 came out). I have even gone as far as to do a clean install from scratch with no luck on the fax receiving. I am really disappointed. And reverting back to an earlier version of the OS (10.4.8) is not an option. I need to move forward not backward. HELP! Thanks, Steve
July 18th, 2007 at 6:47 am
OK I installed Pagesender 4.0.3 with much anticipation of getting a working fax but to no avail. The new version did NOT fix my fax receiving capability. I am still unable to receive faxes only send. HELP!
August 10th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I have the same problem of Steve Elman, with version 4.0.3
August 10th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Mushino — please mail support questions to support@pagesender.com. We answer our mail promptly and this is a better way to get personalized support.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Have you considered support for HylaFax and tcp.int?
The few Hylafax clients for the Mac are pretty clunky.
I had someone write me a custom Mac client, but it’s a few years out of date, and they lost the source code, and lost interest in maintaining it.
http://www.tpc.int/
http://www.hylafax.org/content/Main_Page
I had a NetBSD box running the Hylafax server with 18 modems attached. The server took care of all the outgoing faxes. The only thing that is really needed is something that looks and feels like a Mac app, handles cover pages nicely, and can spool to the server in a format that HylaFax understands.
Once you have that, you have access to fax machines all over the world for free via the tcp.int network.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Bernard - Thanks for your feature request. Hylafax is a bit of a specialty area so far as PageSender’s audience is concerned. I’ll add it to our feature request list so that we consider it for the future.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Well after one and a half years yes 1.5 years you guys FINALLY fixed the receiving issue with the release of 4.2.2. I just received my first fax in 1.5 years. Seriously guys 1.5 years to get this fixed. PALEEZE. Thanks but it really wasn’t too timely. I am using it but I am wondering on your all’s thought process to take this long to fix this issue. It was clearly represented to you in detail. I sent and gave everything you wanted and you guys through your arms up and forgot about me and others until today. Any apology? Any comp? Any details on what bug fixes you did fix so we could all be informed????? Anything including crumbs would be advantageous to the MAC community. Thanks, Steve
March 4th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Steve - I’m glad to hear everything is sorted. There were no receive-related changes in 4.2.2, so I’d guess something else helpful changed with Mac OS X or your system.
March 4th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
No my system did NOT change, it was DIRECTLY related with YOUR software upgrade that was way late 1.5 years come on. What ever it was it fixed i since you won’t fess upt. I have tried everything you asked to do since 10.4.8 even rebuild hard drives multiple times and only install your software. Your software works EXCEPT from 10.4.8 - 10.5.1 unless you install your 4.2.2 “bug fix” update. Sure wish you guys would be a little more responsive and really want to find out what the issue was. It would be interesting to see if Mushino can install your new update to see if he gets fixed. Later.