GeekSlash

Hi. I just started work for my dad company for a few months (I have some debts to pay off) and spent half the morning faxing an offer manually to customers. I'm felt sure that there was an easier way to do this, but it sounds complicated.

They used to have a computer database of customers and suppliers, but stopped using it because of compatability issues (it was in ACT). I don't have coding skills to make them a custom MySQL/PHP solution and I'm not sure if they'd use it, so I'd like to make them a database in Access 07.

I'd like them to be then able to mail merge it Word 07 and then from there somehow to the dedicated fax line (which currently has a HP all in one on it, but I'd like the computer to be able to send faxes on it too), so that it can mailmerge maybe hundreds of faxes and just go through them in the background on the computer without them needing to manually type in the number on the machine for every customer and wait while it scans and faxes it before doing the next one.

I'd also like Access database to be accessable from more than one computer, but doesn't have to be simultaneously if this is too hard (like needing a MS SQL solution)

So my questions are as follows:

Can an access 07 database sit on a network place and be accessable and editable from all computers on network (even if only one at once)?

Can word 07 mailmerge to a fax software?

What fax software is available relatively cheaply (they seem to use a Windows XP Home computer and a Windows Vista Home (Basic I tihnk) computer. Is there some fax software (which is preferable to online fax solutions like eFax seen as though they have their own fax line with its own number)?

How would the computer link to the fax line (it gets its internet on a different line) without stopping the HP all in one having access? A modem?


Thanks in advance