ave a little switch on the side, which can be set to dial pulse or DTMF. If the outside line is rotary but you want to use the touchtone buttons, it con- verts the signals being emitted by the telephone from DTMF to dial pulse. This is necessary if the local telephone com- pany central office cannot accept DTMF signals, which is increasingly rare in the United States. The dial pad is still touch-tone in appearance, not rotary. When you dial the called telephone number on the touch-tone pad, it will take longer for the telephone to send out the dial pulses (about as long as it would take if you were actually using a rotary telephone). You can usually hear the sounds of the tele- phone "pulsing out" while you are waiting. The Telecom Handbook 4 7 THE TELEPHONE Some of the newer voice processing systems use voice rec- ognition (Say "Yes" for the Sales Department.) e. The feature buttons, also known as feature keys or function keys. These can serve a variety of functions. They enable different outside lines and extensions to be answered. They may activate telephone system functions such as call trans- fer, call conferencing, call forwarding, etc. They can also be used to speed dial frequently called numbers. Every telephone system manufacturer treats these feature buttons differently, SO what you learn about one system may not apply to an- other. Some feature buttons are flexible, meaning that they can be programmed for a variety of functions. Some are fixed, meaning they can provide only a specific function. Some systems have soft keys meaning that the same button per- forms different functions at different times. f. The display, also known as the LCD (liquid crystal dis- play). Not all telephones have displays, although most newer ones do. All business telephone system manufac- turers provide them, but the display telephones may cost more. In most cases they are worth the investment since operating the telephone on a business telephone system without the benefit of the information provided in the dis- play can be c