Abacus Consulting, LLC

Usage Options

Copy/Paste 

As indicated earlier, if you are going to use the copy/paste method, you are done.  Simply create the calculated field as a visible field, and copy/paste the resultant calculation to a blank email message.

Use a Lookup Field

This approach requires a total of four fields:

• A standard fax field (Type: Fax)
  
• A formatted internet fax recipient field (Type:Email)
  
• A calculated phantom field (Type:Calculated)
• A contact lookup field (Type: Text with lookup to contact list -- the lookup must match the calculated phantom field to the formatted fax recipient field)
  

To use this approach, create the phantom fax  field as described above.  In order to populate the formatted field, it will be necessary to take the following steps:

• Enter the basic contact info and populate the standard fax field
• Save the contact record, thus populating the calculated phantom field
• Move to the contact lookup field, and lookup the current contact

After performing the lookup, the calculated field will be copied to the formatted (email) field.  Now you can use the email button to create a new fax to this recipient.

Process/Change

Probably the best method of all is to use a periodic process/change.  Create a formatted fax recipient field (Type:email) as well as the calculated field.  Use the Time Matters Process/Change feature to periodically update the formatted field with the the contents of the calculated field by copy the contents of one to the other.

Other Options

Stay tuned, in a future article we will explore the possibilities of automating the process in a few other interesting and unique ways.