How do I save the fax numbers I use?

You do not have to build it

The address book starts filling itself the first time you send a fax. Each number this account has faxed is listed under the recipient name from your cover page, or under the number itself if you used no cover page. Nothing is asked of you and nothing has to be imported.

You can also add a destination you have not faxed yet. It takes a name and a fax number, in the same short form you use to edit one later.

Picking one when you send

On the send screen, the link beside the recipient field opens everything you can fax in one place: your own destinations under "Yours", and our directory of known destinations under "Directory". Searching looks through both at once, so you can type a name you gave a number or the name of an organization you have never faxed and get either.

Choosing a destination fills the number in for you. You can also still type a number straight into the field, the fastest route for a one-off.

The mobile app works the same way. "Search the directory" under the number field opens your destinations and the directory. You add, edit and hide them under More, then Address book.

Naming a destination is how you keep it

Giving a number a name is the whole act of saving it. A number that arrived on its own already carries whatever name we could work out. Type a better one over it and that name is the one you see on the send screen from then on. There is no separate step for adding versus renaming, and nothing to press to keep a destination you have already named.

Names are for you. A name is what your account calls a place it faxes. It is never published, never shown to another account and never used to describe the number to anyone else.

What a destination tells you

Each destination reports what happened the last time this account faxed it: that it was delivered and when, that it was partly delivered, or that it has never been delivered and how many attempts that took.

"Partly delivered" is its own outcome and not a polite way of saying it failed. It means pages reached the recipient but no document arrived whole. Somebody at the other end is holding part of what you sent.

A destination you have never faxed says nothing at all. FaxTerra reports only what it observed. Silence on a row means we have nothing to tell you, not that something is wrong.

There is nothing to keep up to date

There is no button to mark a destination current, correct, or checked. Nothing goes stale if you do not visit it. A destination shows only what happened when you faxed it.

If a number stops working, you find out from the fax that did not go through. The destination says so from then on. When you try a number repeatedly and nothing ever gets through, the send screen says so before you send again rather than letting you keep trying in the dark.

Everyone on the account shares one address book

The address book belongs to the account rather than to the person who built it. Everyone on the account sees every destination and can use, name, and hide them. A destination someone else saved is available to you immediately.

That also means it survives people. When the person who built the list leaves the account, the list stays exactly as it was: their names, their numbers, and the delivery record against each one. Nothing has to be handed over, exported, or rebuilt. See how shared accounts work.

The directory of known destinations

FaxTerra also keeps a directory of destinations that are the same for everybody, such as the fax lines for IRS forms. We check each one against the organization's own published page, and each says when we last checked it.

You can search the directory by name or by the form you are filing, whether or not you have ever sent a fax. It also knows which published numbers are telephone lines rather than fax lines and offers the right number instead. Where we have written a page about a line, the card beside the recipient field links to it. See faxing the IRS.

Hiding a destination

Hiding takes a destination off your lists. It deletes nothing. Your record of the faxes you sent to that number stays on your Sent page, and the number itself is unaffected.

A hidden destination comes back if you fax the number again. Saving a number you hid earlier brings the same entry back with whatever name you give it.

A number can only be in your address book once. If you point a destination at a number you already have, FaxTerra tells you rather than quietly merging the two.