Quick Link II V.1.4.3

Overview of Package

Quick Link II is a terminal and a fax software package. This software usually accompanies modem hardware when it is purchased.

Evaluation

Installation

The installation of Quick Link II for Windows comes on only one floppy disk and it took roughly a minute or so to install. The only question asked during the installation was if the software should be set as the default printer for Windows. Quick Link II only takes up 1.05 MB of hard-disk space, which is the smallest of all four of the programs evaluated. There is an online registration feature once you have entered the program.

Screen Layout

The main screen did not have to much information cluttering it, and seemed to be well organized. Some of the buttons could have been a little better worded, but the graphic on the icon usually helped in deciphering what the button was for. The information at the bottom of the screen for the novice user might be a little unclear, but this would be information that they would probably not use anyway.

Receiving Faxes

The set-up of the system to receive a fax was not very clear and took us some time to figure out. There is no user notification of a received fax, when a fax comes in, you have to check the queue to see if a fax has been received. As well, there is no option to print the fax as it comes into the system, it must be printed when it is being viewed by the user.

The receive log will show you when the fax was received, the time it was received, what the file had been saved as, how many pages are in the fax, and if the transmission was successful. There is some advanced information which does not come up on the main log screen and can only be viewed when the "info" button is clicked. This is information like the number it was faxed from, the resolution, and again the other items that were already displayed. You have the ability to remove one or all the faxes from the receive log, but there is no option to move the files to a different location.

Quick Link II does not have the capabilities for binary format faxes or for optical character recognition of faxes, which was a nice feature of the other packages. As well, there was not the extra capability of fax forwarding or viewing the fax while it is being received.

Phone Book Capabilities

The phone book capabilities in Quick Link II were very limited. When entering a new item, the amount of detail to be entered was only the name, fax number and set-up features for the terminal connection. There were no capabilities to create groups of fax numbers, although you could fax to a number of different locations. The normal options of editing and deleting numbers was available.

There were no extended features like speed-dial numbers or alternative fax numbers. There was the ability to browse for a number or to search the list for a fax number.

Cover Page Composition

There was only one generic cover sheet available in Quick Link II, but it did merge all of the relevant information on the sender and the receiver into the appropriate fields. As the other packages had cover sheet editors, there was nothing like this available in Quick Link II. Although, of course you could edit the note area of the cover sheet.

Sending Faxes

In the sending of faxes, Quick Link seemed very primitive, as there was no way of previewing the fax before it was to be sent, except for the cover sheet. If you were to send an attachment with the cover sheet, you would have to convert this to a fax format, and this conversion process seemed to be confusing.

There was the ability to schedule a fax to be sent at a later date and time, as well as sending the fax immediately. Although, there was no way of rescheduling the time or date of an already scheduled fax. In the send log, you could see if a fax had been successfully sent, or if it was still waiting to be sent, or if there was an error in transmission. You were able to delete faxes out of the send log just as easily as in the receive log.

Help System

The help system was complete and was fully context sensitive.

Extra Features & Cost

The average Canadian retail price is $29.98, however, Quick Link comes free with many modem packages.