tamuskype

Skype is an Internet communications system. You can communicate via chat, voice, or with a web cam. You can have a conference if you want to involve more than two people, but the free version restricts the number of people in your conference depending on the type of conference (voice or video).


 * The Skype Window**

The Skype window has 5 tabs labeled Skypefind, History, Contacts, Call Phones, and Live.

The **Contacts** tab is the one that you will use most often. It has your list of Contacts. You can click the Search button at the top of the contacts section to find Skype users. Search by username, or location from country to city and request their contact information. If someone is in Skype Me mode, then they are currently allowing contact from people who aren't on their contact list. Everyone else is protected from contact by people they don't know. You must request contact details from these others before you can contact them. The Skype contact request will have a section for you to introduce yourself and tell your reason for requesting contact information. They will have the opportunity to approve or deny your request. You are protected the same way unless you change your status to Skype Me.

The **History** tab is also a nice feature. Your text chat sessions are archived. Click the History tab to access the archives of your text chats.

I don't use the other tabs, but they are explained in the user guide that I link to at the bottom of the page.


 * Making a Call**

When you click on a contact, their details will expand. You will see an introduction beside their name (if they have typed one), and two buttons. The blue button that has a cartoon text bubble will start a text chat. The green button with a phone will start an audio or video call. If you have a webcam set up and plugged in, then you can make it a video call. You can send people files and links. Right-click their name in your contacts tab and choose send File. To send a link choose start chat, copy the web page address, and paste it into the chat window where you would normally type the chat text. The nice thing about that is that the chat history will hold those links and files for future reference.

There are a number of other free extras that are offered also. Pamela offers recording of voice conferences. You can record interviews that you conduct with Skype. Another extra that you can use is called crazy talk. Crazy talk has a free version and a paid version. The free version offers media and desktop sharing for a few seconds at a time. The paid version of Crazy talk allows unlimited media and desktop sharing. You can find and set up extras by clicking the Tools menu, then Do More. That will open a new menu to the side that has several extras. You need to install them before you are in a call and you want to use them.

Skype has a users guide. [|Click here to go to that guide].