Make your own Fax Server with Automator! (Pagesender solution for Mavericks)

Question

I have been scouring these discussion boards for some time now looking for a suitable substitute to PageSender, an awesome fax solution for the Mac from SmileOnMyMac LLC, which for some inexplicable reason stopped development and updates after OS 10.6.8. The result is that many small business office users who still rely on fax (and yes...no matter what they tell you, most of the business world DOES still use fax because it's legally binding and more secure than email for the transmission of legal documents or healthcare records, and does not rely on database integration accross different systems, which is sadly but very realistically still a long ways off), and no longer have a way to integrate faxes into a paperless or digital workflow office system.
I suspect like many folks who receive faxes, those who used PageSender, used a very powerful feature to forward faxes by email, thereby turning your Mac into a Fax server that could distribute your faxes to other workstations and staff throughout the business via email. Presumably, if you have your own email server (Exchange, Kerio, AppleMail server, PostFix enabler etc.) you could distribute faxes on your own internal network, securely behind a firewall, and effectively create a digitial/paperless workflow for your faxes.
Even if you have a USB modem or multifunction printer that allows you to recieve a Fax to your desktop (Apple's internal fax via printer preferences, and some HP models like the HP MFP 127fw) for example will allow you to recieve a Fax to a desktop folder or forward to a single email address. But the former is of limited functionaliy and the later only lets you send to an email address out over the internet with a registered public domain, which means you give up all control of privacy and means you can't process it through a private mail server to create a digital workflow for your office...
...Until now!!!
I am happy to report that I have finally discovered a very easy and useable feature that will save a lot of time, money, and headaches for those looking to create a digital workflow and fax server system for a small office system. (I don't think there is any limit to scale here, but I suspect offices with more than 10 employees probably have a BizHub, or HP MFP/digital sender that can create the same process directly from the printer, but of course these come with a price tag of $2000 and up...).
To accomplish this however, you will need some basic requirements which are as follows:
1) A USB modem from either US Robotics or Zoom Modem. These are readily available from Amazon, MacMall or any number of other online vendors and work very well and seemlessly with all Macs running OSX right up through Mavericks
OR
A Multifunction printer that is capable of receiving faxes to a desktop Mac like the HP 127 fw. Other models exist from other manufacturers as well, but you will have to do a bit of research and probably check with the vendor or user manual directly to confirm that Fax to desktop is supported for Mac and OS 10.9.
2) A dedicated Mail Server (MSFT Exchange, Kerio, MacOSX server with mail server enabled, or PostFix enalber or MailServe from Cutedge Systems)
You will need to set up an email account on your server that is the parent for all incoming faxes from which the faxes will be sent out as part of your digital workflow. This is beyond the scope of this discussion but if you've come this far and you're still reading, you probably know  how to do this already. I recommend setting this up as a POP account, not IMAP. This way, the attatchments (your faxes) will always remain on your server as a back up, until you delete them from the server.
3) Now simply go to System preferences and select "Printers and Scanners". Select either the Fax printer for your multifunction printer, or add a fax printer/reviever using the + button and select "Fax" if you are using a USB modem. You must have the USB modem attatched to the computer in order to use the built-in Apple Fax feature for the latter option.
4) Now click on the receive options. Select "Recieve faxes to this computer" and set your ring answer settings. Check "Save to" and select the designated folder (either Faxes or Shared Faxes on your computer) or create a new folder. Depending on the volume of faxes, and your back up systems, you may want to designate a separate folder on a separate drive, exclusively for your Faxes. This is where all your faxes will be stored.
5) Now launch "Automator" in your applications folder and create a new workflow. You will be presented with several options. Select "Folder Action".
6) At the top right of the window space you will see "Folder Action receives files and folders added to" . Select the Fax folder you created in step 4.
7)On the left hand side of the "Actions" menu select "Mail"
8) From the list of actions select "New Mail Message" this will take the latest Fax added to your Fax folder and attach it as a PDF to a new outgoing mail. In the "TO" address put the email address that belongs to the parent account your created for the Faxes on your mail server eg. [email protected].  In the subject field you can put "Fax Workflow" or any other generic subject that will identify to all reciptients that this is an email that contains a Fax/PDF attatchment.
Under "account" use the SMTP account you set up on your mail server to handle the routing of internal emails. In most cases, this will be the same as the parent account created above. (Effectively, this account is sending and receiving emails to itself).
9) From the list of actions, select "Send outgoing messages".
10) Save the Automator workflow with a name like "FaxDistribution" or "FaxFlow".
11) Go back to the Fax folder you created in step 4. Right click or option click on the folder and scroll down the options menu and select "Folder Actions Setup". You will see a list of scripts including the Automator workflow you just created. Choose it.
That's it!! From now on, when you get a fax, it will get dumped into the designated fax folder, and this will automatically trigger the workflow to atttach and send it as an email to anyone in your office that is set up to receive emails with the "faxserver" address. You now have a paperless fax digital workflow server system for distributing your faxes digitally to anyone in your office who needs to review your faxes. Good luck!

Answer 1

Thank you for this interesting posting.