Getting started

The Dispatcher Paragon Cloud Fax service is a high-capacity, reliable, and globally accessible service that enables the transmission and reception of faxes from an easy-to-use web portal or a Konica Minolta MFD. Cloud Fax is easy to install whether your business needs faxing capabilities from a single location, company campus, or multiple offices worldwide. Whether you need to allow faxing from one desktop or one thousand, Cloud Fax is designed to meet your requirements.

The Cloud Fax Control Panel

The Control Panel is a web portal that allows you to log in and access the services assigned to users, such as sending, receiving, and viewing faxes, and acting as a portal for Account Managers to amend the account and user settings.

Logging in to the Control Panel

Ask your service representative/customer support to provide you with credentials for the Control Panel. Once you have them, enter your username and password to log in to Control Panel.

Navigating the Control Panel

Two main sets of menus in the Control Panel allow access to the various sections: the Navigation Menu on the left (Item 1 as shown below) and the User Menu on the right (item 2 as shown below).

The Navigation Menu

The Navigation Menu is the main menu for moving between the services available in the Control Panel. The menu can be expanded or collapsed using the 'three horizontal lines' button at the top. The following links may be found depending on your assigned services or user privileges.

  • Send Fax: This allows users with the Send fax service to use the sending fax web form to submit faxes.
  • Inbox: Gives you access to your received faxes, which you can open for viewing in the Document Viewer. Expanding the sub-menu lets you access Archived items and Trash.
  • Sent Items: Gives you access to your sent items.
  • My Settings: Gives you access to your user settings.
  • Account Management: Gives Account Managers access to user management options and billing information.
  • Account Settings: Gives Account Managers access to account information and security settings.

The User Menu

The User menu gives you quick access to commonly used links. The menu works as a drop-down, triggered by the down arrow link at the top of the page. The following links may be found:

  • Profile: Quickly access your profile page, where you can update your details and change your password. 
  • Language Selection:  Quickly change the selected display language.
  • Help Center: Access support sections with FAQs, how-to's, and general support.
  • Contact Us: Contact the support team in your region.
  • Change password: Change your current password.
  • Log Out: Log out of your current session.

Fax from the Control Panel

All users with the Send Fax service can log in to the Control Panel and send faxes quickly and easily using a simple web form. The form allows you to send faxes to multiple recipients, assign subjects for internal use, and attach files. It also provides advanced options for fax transmission. See the Contact Lists section if you wish to broadcast to multiple recipients.

  1. In the Navigation Menu, click Send Fax.

  2. Click the + icon on the right-hand side of the To (fax numbers) field to open the Add new contacts to fax window.
  3. You can add the contact's name for your reference in the Contact name field.
  4. Add the fax number you wish to send the fax to in the Fax number field, ensuring the number is formatted correctly. For more information regarding the correct formatting of fax numbers, see Fax Number Formats.

  5. Click Add to return to the Send Fax form.

  6. Select the contact list from the Recipients drop-down to send a fax to a contact list. See Contact Lists for more information.
  7. To add one or more attachments to be faxed, click the Files to fax field to open your local file explorer, where you can locate and select the files to be attached.
  8. To add a first (or cover page) to your fax, you can enter the information to be faxed in the Message field and use the formatting options along the bottom.

  9. By default, the settings for sending a fax using the web form are taken from your user settings; however, you can tweak these options before sending a fax by clicking Advanced Settings. The following options are available under Advanced Settings: 

    Default page attributes

    The number of attempts to perform: The number of attempts to perform in cases of fax transmission failure.

    Fax CSID: Your identification as seen in your outgoing fax.

    Feedback email address: An optional email address to which feedback messages are sent.

    Page orientation: Specify landscape or portrait page orientation for the transmission.

    Page size: Specify the page size to be transmitted (A4, Letter, Legal, B4).

    Rendering optimization: Specify whether to render documents in black and white or greyscale.

    Resolution: Specify standard or fine resolution for the transmission.

    Use these settings for all faxes: Select this check box to quickly update settings to save and reflect those used for this transmission.

    Time to send

    Time to Send allows users to specify whether to submit the fax immediately (ASAP) or to delay submission of the fax into the system for up to 14 days. Simply change the When to send  drop-down to Postponed, select a future date and time for submission, then click Update.

  10. When you are happy with the information to be faxed and the required settings, click Send fax to submit the fax into the cloud fax systems for sending.

    You will be prompted with a confirmation window. Click Send new fax to compose new fax, Sent items to track the status of your submissions, or click OK to be returned to the form you just submitted.

Contact Lists

Cloud Fax's contact lists management allows users to send static or dynamic faxes to lists of contacts rather than single transactions to individual contacts. Contact lists make it possible to send faxes to up to 20,000 contacts in a single transaction. In any broadcast, two items are required, the fax to be broadcast and a list of recipients. The sent fax can either be static (meaning each recipient in the list receives the same fax) or dynamic (meaning every recipient receives personalized fax featuring merged fields).

Create a new contact list

  1. In the Navigation Menu, click Contact Lists.
  2. You will be prompted to create a new list if you have not made any lists. Otherwise, click the Add a New list (+) icon in the View Lists section.

  3. In the New contacts list window, assign a unique name to your list and choose whether to share the list with other users under the same account.

  4. Click Add.

Now you can add contacts to the list you have created.

Add contacts to a list.

Once you have created a list, you will need to add contacts. You can upload a file of contacts to be imported or manually add contacts. You can simultaneously add and send up to 20,000 contacts and remove or edit contacts in existing lists.

Manually add contacts
  1. Select the list to which you want to add contacts in the View Lists section.
  2. If you have not added any contacts to the list, you will be prompted to add a new contact. Otherwise, click the Add a new contact to list (+) icon in the  [ List Name ]  section.

  3. In the New contact in the list window, enter the information for the contact.

  4. Click Add.
Import contacts from a file

  1. In the View Lists section, click the three dots next to the list you want to import contacts to, then select Import from the drop-down menu.

  2. In the Import window, select import options, then click Import.

    Files to upload: Opens the File Explorer. Navigate to and select the file(s) you wish to import.

    Character to use as the CSV delimiter: Specify whether the imported file fields are separated by comma (,) or semicolon (;).

    Fax Number / Contact Name / Company / Phone Number: Define the order in which the fields appear within the file you wish to import.

    Ignore duplicate fax numbers: Select whether or not to ignore duplicate entries in the Fax Number column.

    The first row of the list contains field names: Define whether or not the file contains the first row of headers.

Edit a contact

It is possible to edit the details of an existing contact within a list of contacts.

  1. Select the list that contains the contact you want to edit in the View Lists section.

  2. In the [ List Name ] section, click the three dots next to the contact you want to edit, then select Edit from the drop-down menu.

  3. Edit contact details, then click Update.

Remove contacts from a list.

  1. Select the list that contains the contact you want to delete in the View Lists section.

  2. In the [ List Name ] section, click the three dots next to the contact you want to delete, then select Delete from the drop-down menu.

Export contacts list to file.

Exporting a list of contacts to file in CSV format is possible.

  1. In the View Lists section, click the three dots next to the list you want to export to, then select Download CSV from the drop-down menu.
  2. Select a local download location, then select Save.

Rename a list

  1. Click the three dots next to the list you want to rename in the View Lists section, then select Rename from the drop-down menu.

  2. Enter a new name for the list, then click Update.

Delete a list

  1. In the View Lists section, click the three dots next to the list you want to delete, then select Remove from the drop-down menu.

Search for a list or contact. The search boxes at the top of each section make it possible to search for specific lists or a contact within a selected list. Once you type at least two letters, suggestions will be filtered.

Fax number formats

Cloud Fax  is designed to be similar to dialing a standard fax machine. The principle is to specify a fax number as if you were dialing it from a traditional telephone; however, you may add access codes (long-distance, international), country, and area codes. If no explicit access codes or prefixes are specified, Cloud Fax will automatically add them according to your user settings.

For reading convenience, a fax number may contain special characters such as hyphens, parentheses, etc. Any non-digit character is ignored, except for a plus sign (+) used as a generic International Access Code. Fax numbers that contain brackets need to be written as a quoted string.

Safest format

If you are not sure what your user settings are, simply use the following standard international access notation:

+(country code)(area code)(fax number)

For example: +1-212-9876543 or +44-208-1234567

Other international fax number examples

Example 1

(User configured to dial from New York, NY, USA)

Faxing from the USA to the UK:

Option 1: +44 161 999 8888

Option 2:  011 44 (161) 999 8888

Note:  A US-based user (as defined by account) can dial the US-specific international access code 011.

Faxing to another area within the United States:

Option 1: 14089998888

Option 2: +1 (408) 999 8888

Faxing to another number within New York:

Option 1: 222 8888

Option 2: 1-212-222 8888

Option 3: “+1 (212) 222 8888”

Example 2

(User configured to dial from London, UK)

Faxing from the UK to the USA:

Option 1: +1 212 999 8888

Option 2: “001 (212) 999 8888”

Note:  A UK-based user (as defined by account) can dial the UK-specific international access code 00.

Faxing to another area within the UK:

Option 1: 01619998888

Option 2: +44 (161) 999 8888

Faxing to another number within London:

Option 1: 222 8888

Option 2: 1-212-222 8888

Option 3: “+1 (212) 222 8888”

My Settings

All users have a My Settings menu option, which gives you access to the options available and information about any services and the available options for those services.

My Profile

The My Profile page lets you update your details, including name, email address for communications, a unique CSID for outgoing faxes, and select your timezone. These are user details and are separate from account-level information.

My Services

The My Services page shows the services (send or receive faxes) assigned to you. You will also find the fax number associated with your user if you have an inbound fax service.

See Services for more information.

Incoming Options

This menu item will only be available to active inbound faxing service users.
Notifications

You can receive fax to multiple email addresses simultaneously. Under Notifications, you can add and remove additional email addresses where faxes are sent.

  1. Click the Add email address (+) icon.
  2. In the Add email address window, enter the email address you want to add.
  3. Click Add.

  4. Once added, email addresses can then be edited or deleted via the menu on the right-hand side of the entry in the list.

Auto Share

You can use the Auto Sharing feature to automatically share received faxes with one or more users or groups of users under an account. Individual users may create and change the Auto Sharing settings, which apply only to received faxes (received items the user is the owner). Instead of sharing each fax manually, with auto-sharing, you can share all of your received faxes in just a few steps.

Enable auto-sharing of received documents

  1. Log in to the user whose documents you would like to auto-share.

    Account Managers can log into individual users by navigating to Account Management / Users.

  2. Click My Settings, Incoming Options, and Auto Share in the Navigation Menu.

  3. Select the Enable Automatic Sharing check box.

Now that automatic sharing is enabled, you can specify access to received items for all users under the account using the "Anyone in the organization" setting and add new users or groups of users to auto-share documents.

  1. Click the Invite people (+) icon.

  2. In the Invite people window, specify the user or group with which you want to auto-share faxes. Once you start typing, suggested users or groups will be displayed.

  3. Assign the desired permission level for the user or group. The following options are available: 

    • Can view

    • Can view and edit

    • Can view and share

    • Can view, edit, and share

  4. Click Update.

Once added, you will see the new entry in the Auto Sharing list, and you can amend permissions by clicking the 'Down' arrow on the right-hand side of its entry in the list or deleted by clicking the X icon.

Outgoing Options

This menu item will only be available to active outbound faxing service users.

Integration Settings

Allows developers to connect through their environments to define additional inbound and outbound faxing settings.

Integration settings for incoming fax

Web feedback method: You can specify a default notification method for inbound faxes. You can select to never receive notifications, receive by HTTP Post or XML web service.

Delete fax image after retrieval by Web Service: This allows you to permanently remove fax images and precursor documents from our servers after being retrieved so that any sensitive data cannot be exposed.

Integration settings for outgoing fax

Web feedback: This allows you to specify the conditions under which feedback is sent via the web service for outgoing fax transmissions. The following options are available:

  • Always: Feedback will be provided for all fax transmissions, regardless of the transmission status.
  • Never: No feedback will be sent regarding the status of outgoing fax transmissions.
  • On success: Feedback will only be sent for successful fax transmissions. Feedback will not be sent for faxes that fail to transmit.
  • On failure: Feedback will only be sent for failed fax transmissions. Feedback will not be sent for faxes that transmit successfully.

Web feedback method lets you specify what format feedback is sent in. You can select between HTTP Post and XML web service.

Web feedback URL:  The URL for the web service feedback to connect to.

Handling of unsupported file types:  – Allows you to specify whether or not the system should disregard unsupported file type attachments when processing outgoing fax transmissions.

Note:  This option affects both web service and emails to fax services.

Services

To manage services, please contact your dealer.

Account Settings

AA range of options available at an Account level can be personalized to suit your needs. Only Account Managers have access to Account Settings.

Account Information

Allows Account Managers to view and update the contact information held.

Allowed IP Addresses

Account Managers may add IP address ranges to restrict access to an account. The access restrictions also apply to the API web service. Caution: Make sure to allow your IP address first. Otherwise, you will lock yourself out of your account.

  1. Log in as an Account Manager.
  2. In the Navigation Menu, click  Account Settings and Allowed IP Addresses. This page lists all IP addresses with access restrictions in your account.

  3. Click the Add allowed IP address range  (+) icon.

  4. Give an identifier to the access restriction in the Name box.
  5. To allow access from a single IP address, type the same IP address in the From and the To boxes. For example: From – 62.219.162.162, To – 62.219.162.162.
  6. To allow access from a range of IP addresses, type the lower IP address in the From box and the higher IP address into the To box. For example: From – 62.219.62.54, To – 62.219.62.58.
  7. Click Add.

Customized Properties

Each fax in your Inbox has several properties: time received, number of pages, shared time, and owner. Faxes can be further organized by adding tags, a unique reference, a fax name, and/or customized properties. Account Managers can define up to 10 additional customized properties for an account.

  1. Log in as an Account Manager.
  2. In the Navigation Menu, click Account Settings, then click Customized Properties.
  3. Click the Add new property (+) icon.

  4. In the Add new property window, assign a name to the new property and define the property type (string, date, or numeric).

  5. Click  Add.

    A notification will be displayed with the result of adding the property. If added successfully, you will be able to locate the property in the list and edit the property itself.

Control Features

Allows Account Managers to enable/disable features for inbound faxes. All capabilities are enabled by default.

  1. Log in as an Account Manager.
  2. In the Navigation Menu, click Account Settings, then click Control Features.

  3. Enable or disable features as needed, then click Update. The following options are available:

    Option

    Description

    Delete documents

    Select this option to enable the "Delete document" option in the Inbox and Document Viewer for all users in the account.

    Print received documents

    Select this option to enable the "Print document" option in the Document Viewer for all users in the account.

    Download received documents

    Select this option to enable the "Download Document" option in the Document Viewer for all users in the account.

    Auto forward documents

    Select this option to enable the "Auto Forward" option in My Settings > Incoming Options for all users in the account.

    Blackout sensitive content in documents

    Select this option to enable the "Blackout" option in the Document Viewer for all users in the account.

    Auto share documents

    Select this option to enable the "Auto Share" option in My Settings > Incoming Options for all users in the account.

    Share documents

    Select this option to enable the "Share" option in the Inbox and Document Viewer for all users in the account.

    Get email notifications for received documents.

    Select this option to allow users to set notification emails for received faxes.

    Display sender email address

    Select this option to display the sender email address of received emails in the Inbox "Sender" column, the "More Details" popup, and the received email's header.

    Change language

    Select this option to allow users to change the user interface language.

Storage Policy

Allows Account Managers to set the fax storage period according to the fax's received time.