two online utilities to recommend

 I don't often recommend websites  on this blog. While I may have done so in passing, I'm pretty sure I've never written a post with the aim of recommending an online resource. But I'm gonna do it now.

For those who don't want to bother reading my lengthy buildup, the two recommendations are faxzero (a tool for faxing documents) and combinepdf (a tool for combining multiple pdfs into one).

Now that I've given away the punchline, let me set up with a real world example. But first, let me note that I do not have a fax machine. I do have a printer/copier/scanner. In theory, it should be able to send and receive faxes, but those capabilities have been disabled. For practical purposes, I can't use the feeder to scan multiple sheets into one document -- it usually jams, and the image is usually of poor quality. I get much better results if I go through the tedious process of scanning each page separately in the flatbed.

So, party A sent me a three page pdf. They wanted me to fill out certain parts, then forward to party B to fill out other parts. B was then to send the document back to me so I could send it back to A. No, the form was not one of those fill-in-able pdfs. Filling stuff out had to be done by hand. Oddly, A was happy to conduct their end by email. But B wanted me to fax the document to them. Which makes no sense to me, since they were happy to email to me. But I didn't want to get into an argument over it.

In the end, the steps were:

• A emailed me the document.
• I printed it out.
• I filled out my sections.
• I scanned the three pages individually, creating three one-page documents.
• I used combinepdf to create one three-page document.
• I used faxzero to send the document to B.
• B completed their section, and emailed it back to me.
• I forwarded that email to A.

Both websites offered their services for free, though faxzero does charge if you want anything but very low volume. They were both very easy to use.

As free services go, I rate faxzero a nine and combinepdf a ten. Faxzero loses points because its free service limits you to five faxes per day, and faxes cannot be more than three pages long. To fax more you have to pay.