Yes, there is a document feeder on this printer. I don't know off hand the maximum paper amount at one time, but I scanned about 15-20 documents at once with no problem.

It uses a land phone line. I'm wondering which model of HP printer you're thinking of when stating that "other HP all-in-one wireless printers use an internet service ...". I've owned several HP printers that had wireless connection and the fax never went through the internet. At any rate, as for the HP Officejet Pro 8600 printer, once you set it up via wireless connection, simply use a phone line to plug your home phone into the back of the printer and then connect the printer to the phone jack. (You will see on the back of the printer where to plug in your phone and where to plug in the phone line that connects to your phone jack.) Remember: You will need to have a wireless router and need to have a wireless network set up on your PC. If you don't have a wireless network setup on your computer, you won't be able to connect any printer wireless ; you can only connect it via USB. Hope this helps :-)

Resize under copy settings ON THE PRINTER

Has the downloaded software version for Windows 8 been truly tested to install and run all functions of this device on a wireless network for the same features as the VISTA or WIN 7 version that is likely in the box?

I have an new HP Envy Laptop running Windows 8 Pro x64 and it and or my Linksys wireless router are unable after more than a dozen reinstalls to complete the software installation. for my OJ 6500 AIO. Thus, it stops and uninstalls leaving only the USB functions. You cannot use a long enough USB cable to handle my office layout and even if it worked, there would be no wireless support for the other 5 devices in the house that also need to print, scan and fax. In fact the primary computer cannot be carried to other places in the home to work because the printer is not connecting to and configuring to the network. I don't want to buy another doorstop.