SBS: Two Fax Jobs Sent to Each Recipient from Mail Merge (271571)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5
This article was previously published under Q271571

SYMPTOMS

When you perform a mail merge operation in Microsoft Word from Microsoft Office 2000, sending the merged documents to the fax printer for Microsoft Fax Service on Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5, the fax client sends two fax jobs for each recipient in the merge address list. These fax jobs appear in the fax printer queue with the name "Exchange Fax Message."

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when you have selected the Send document as an attachment check box in the mail merge Setup. The Fax Mail Transport is designed to send the current message as a single transmission. When you select the Send document as an attachment option, the Fax Mail Transport sends the attached document to the program associated with the attachment to be rendered to the fax printer which results in the document being sent as two separate fax jobs: The electronic mail (Exchange) information, and the actual merged document.

RESOLUTION

To prevent the duplicate messages from appearing, follow these steps:
  1. To begin the mail merge, on the Tools menu, click Mail Merge.
  2. Configure the mail merge with the desired options, but do not begin the merge yet.
  3. In the Mail Merge Helper dialog box, click Merge, and then click Setup on the Merge dialog box when it appears.
  4. When the Merge to Setup dialog box appears, click to clear the Send document as an attachment option.

MORE INFORMATION

When the Send document as an attachment option is not selected, the document is imbedded into the electronic mail body as rendered text instead of as a separate document, and the electronic mail program (Microsoft Outlook in this case) renders the contents of the document to the fax printer itself.

For more information about merging to fax using e-mail, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type Print, e-mail, or fax merged documents in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view "Distribute merged documents to e-mail addresses or fax numbers."

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

185058 How to Send Faxes Using SBS Fax Client Software

228746 Small Business Server 4.5 Release Notes (Part 2 of 2)

See the "Faxing from Outlook 2000" section of the above article.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/18/2006
Keywords:kbenv kbprb KB271571
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