I have a client who wants their customers to fax orders to their office and then capture the order items off the fax. My client would distribute blank order forms to its customers, who would mark check boxes for the items they want and then fax the order form back to my client. I'm thinking OCR or barcode, but better yet maybe there is a way to capture the info straight off the fax file if the fax is received directly into the computer (e.g. with WinFax). Does anyone have any experience in this area or know of any third-party products that might be appropriate?

There are several programs out there that do this. The only one I can think of offhand is Omnipage Pro. With these programs you set up a template so the OCR program will know in which part of the page to look for particular information. It takes that info, OCR's it and places it in a file. You'll be able to find more info on it at: www.caere.com.