How to Get SkypeIn?

The easiest way to get a SkypeIn dial-in number is to click on the My Account tab (which is the tab on the far right) of the Notification Bar in the Skype softphone. This displays a group of links, one of which is for SkypeIn, Click on the link for SkypeIn. This opens a browser window and presents you with a form to sign in to your Skype account, which requires the same username and password that you use to sign in to the Skype softphone. Next, you are presented with a web page giving an overview of your account.
In your account overview page, click on the link Buy SkypeIn Number. This displays a page from which you can choose a country for your dial-in number. After you select a country, you need to choose an area code prefix. You are then presented with predefined numbers for that area code. Search among the available codes until you find one that strikes your fancy, and click on it. Choose a subscription period: 3 months costs 10 ($12), and 12 months costs 30 ($36).
Next, click on the Buy selected number button, which takes you to Skype’s payment page. Follow the prompts to purchase your number.
After payment is complete, go to your Skype softphone and again click on the My Account tab (which is the tab on the far right) of the notification bar.
You should see something like what’s shown in the next figure, indicating that your newly minted dial-in number and voicemail account have been activated. Tell your friends, family, and colleagues what your new number is, and you’re ready to receive calls from regular and mobile phones. If you want additional SkypeIn dial-in numbers, just repeat the procedure described in this section.

Multi Person Chats in Skype

Click on the Contacts tab to display your contacts list. While holding down the control key on your keyboard, click on the Skype users with whom you want to conduct a chat session. With multiple Skype users thus selected, click on the Chat button of the Skype toolbar; or rightclick with your mouse and choose Start Chat from the popup menu that appears. Starting a chat session in this manner will open a chat window with all the selected Skype users as active participants.

How to Search Other Skype Users?

You can search for other Skype users in two different ways. First, you can click on the Add Contact button on the toolbar, which opens a new window in which you can search for a Skype user by entering that person’s real name, Skype name, or e-mail address. Second, by clicking on the Search button on the toolbar, a window opens that allows you to search for a Skype user by entering that person’s real name, Skype name, or e-mail address; but in addition, you can search using these criteria: country, state, city, language, gender, and age range; and you can also search for people whose online status is in Skype Me mode.

How to Call Other Skype Users?

If the person you want to call is already in your contacts list, the simplest way to call him or her is to go to your contacts list (click on the Contacts tab to display the contacts list panel), select the contact you want by clicking on it with your mouse, and then click on the call button. This starts a call and opens a tabbed call panel for that call. Alternatively, once you have selected the contact, rather than clicking the call button, you can either double-click on the selected contact, or right-click on the selected contact and pick “Start Call” from the popup menu that appears.
If you want to call someone who is not in your contacts list, you must first enter his or her Skype username in the address bar, and then hit the enter key on your keyboard or click on the call button. This will open a tabbed call panel for that call.

Skype’s Call Panel

When you make or receive a call, Skype adds a new tab panel, as shown in the following figure. In the center of the panel is a picture of the other party of the call, if they have set up their account to show their own picture; otherwise a default picture provided by Skype is shown. In the case of a conference call, pictures for all other parties to the call are tiled in the call panel. The duration of the call is displayed at the bottom of the call panel.

Skype's Tabs

When there is no call in progress, Skype usually has three tabbed panels—Contacts, Dial, and History—in its main window. Only one is displayed at any given time, and you can switch between panels by clicking on the tabs.
Clicking on the Contacts tab displays your contacts list panel, as shown in the following figure. In this panel you can select an existing contact to call, chat with, or send a file to. If you have contact grouping feature turned on, you can quickly filter your list of contacts by category. As a further aid to finding a contact, in this mode the address bar acts as a filtering tool, so that as you type a Skype username (or the name you have assigned to a user for display purposes) the closest match in your contact list is highlighted.
Clicking on the Dial tab displays Skype’s dialpad, which is shown in the next figure. The dialpad emulates the functions of a keypad that you might find on a regular or mobile phone. Clicking on the buttons of Skype’s dialpad enters the digits and symbols (*, +, and #) into the address bar. You can also use the keyboard to enter names and numbers into the address bar.
Clicking on the History tab displays a history of Skype events (missed calls, incoming calls, outgoing calls, voicemails, transferred files, and chats), as shown in the following figure. When the history panel is displayed, a small pulldown menu (next to a small picture of a magnifying glass) appears on the far left of the address bar. Use this pull-down menu to filter the event history to show only those events of interest.

Skype's Graphical Interface

Skype’s main window, as the next figure shows, contains quite a few graphical elements. In brief, here’s what each of Skype’s major graphical elements does:

• Window title: Displayed in the title bar of Skype’s main window is the Skype username for the person who is currently signed in to Skype. In the accompanying figure, the name is “tcigtskype”, which is short for—no prizes for guessing correctly—The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Skype! This is the Skype username that will be used throughout this book. Yours will be different.
• Main menu: The main menu is what gives you the most control when using or configuring Skype.
• Toolbar: From the toolbar you can do things quickly and efficiently by clicking on an icon.
• Notification bar: This bar is divided horizontally into four parts, from left to right: Online Status (as a small pulldown menu), Full Name (if you’ve set one up, otherwise your Skype name is displayed), Events, and My Account. Clicking on the status portion of the bar drops down a menu from which you can set your online status. Clicking on your name drops down a text box, into which you can enter a short message that others will see when you are online. Clicking on Events drops down a box that shows all events, such as missed calls, that happened while you were away from Skype. The portion of the notification bar to the far right is labeled “My Account” if you are not yet a SkypeOut subscriber; if you are already a SkypeOut subscriber, it displays the value of your remaining SkypeOut credit balance. Clicking on this portion of the notification bar drops down a box that shows your subscription status to Skype services.
• Tabs: The three tabs shown can be used to display the Contacts, Dial, and History panels, respectively. These three panels are dealt with in more detail in the pages that follow. When you make or receive a call, a new panel (and tab) will appear; again, this will be described in more detail in the following pages.
• Contact groups: For your convenience, you can group your contacts into either predefined categories or categories you define yourself. Using this feature, you can quickly filter your contacts list to isolate only those contacts of interest. Moreover, by using contact groups, rather than individual entries in your contacts list, you can communicate more easily when you need to interact with many people at once. Note that contact grouping has to be enabled from the main menu: go to Skype: View and check Show Contact Groups.
• Selected contact: When you select a contact in your contacts list by clicking on it, it expands to show additional information.
• Other contacts: Contacts that are not selected show only their Skype username or a name you have assigned to them for display purposes in your contacts list. You can also show additional information about any contact by letting your mouse pointer hover over that contact.
• Address bar: You can enter a Skype username or toll-free number or a regular telephone number (if you are a SkypeOut subscriber) in the address bar to start a call.
• Call & hang-up buttons: Use the green call button to start a call; use the red hang-up button to end a call.
• Status bar: On the far left of the status bar is a pull-down that enables you to set your online status. The number on the far right of the status bar indicates how many users are signed onto Skype. This number has grown, and continues to grow, at a phenomenal rate. This list is meant to give you an overview of Skype’s graphical user interface. Appendix D lists the names and the purpose of all Skype buttons and icons. For now, let’s take a closer look at some of the elements you’ll be using frequently.

Skype Basic Configuration

Before you start using Skype, I encourage you to review the following checklist. This list covers problem areas and gotchas that often trip up new users of Skype. By casting your eyes over a short list of Skype configuration settings, you will most likely avoid any unpleasant surprises. So start Skype running, sign in, and check these items before making your first Skype call.

• Skype: Tools: Options … : Privacy Check your privacy settings.Specifically, you can choose from whom you would, and would not, like to receive calls and chat.

• Skype: Tools: Options … : Sound Devices Set your Audio In and Audio Out sound devices to the device or devices you wish to use with Skype. I do not recommend using the setting “Windows default device.”
• Skype: Tools: Options … : Connection Make sure there’s a check mark opposite “Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections.”
• Skype: Tools: Options … : Advanced Put a check mark opposite “Start Skype when I start Windows,” so that Skype will always be available when you’re using your computer.

Having worked through the checklist, you are now ready to make your first Skype call. But no matter who you call, you will no doubt want to impress them, right? Well, if so, perhaps there’s one last thing to do: make a test call.

Displaying your Skype online status

Online status icons signify how you want the world to view you on Skype.

• Offline: Select this when you don’t want to take or make any calls. The green call button for making calls is dimmed, indicating that you cannot make calls. However, you can look up profile information about any Skype contact while in this mode.
• Online: This is the status you have (the default setting) when you log on.
• Skype Me: This mode lets everyone else on Skype know that you are interested in talking or chatting with other folks even if they do not know you. By choosing this option, you temporarily disable your privacy settings. In this way, someone can reach you without having to request that you share your contact details. When you return from Skype Me status, your privacy settings are automatically restored.
• Away or Not Available: If your computer has been idle for a while, your status changes from Online to Away or Not Available automatically until you do something, such as move the mouse on your screen. Then it returns to Online status automatically.
• An Away icon (a Skype icon with a small watch next to it) appears next to your Skype Name if there is no activity after a few minutes. Skype sets this time to five minutes, but you can change the settings to a different amount of time.
• A Not Available icon (a Skype icon with a lunar crescent — a kind of “gone to sleep” mode) appears next to your Skype Name after your computer is idle for a longer period of time. Skype sets the amount to 20 minutes, but you can change the settings to a different amount of time.
• The Away or Not Available mode tells other Skype users that you have Skype running but may have actually stepped away from the computer and are unable to respond to a call or chat. Actually, you could be snoozing at the keyboard, but nobody can tell the difference!
• Do Not Disturb: You can indicate that you don’t want to be interrupted by choosing this status. In this mode, you won’t receive any incoming calls or messages, but you can make outgoing calls.
• Invisible: This is sort of a stealth mode by which you can function as you regularly do in Online mode, making and receiving calls, participating on chats, and so on. When others on Skype look at your status, it appears that you are Offline, even though you’re not.

You can change your status anytime, with a choice of ways to do that:

• Choose File➪Change Online Status: This method makes a drop-down list of status icons appear.
• Click the Status icon at the bottom-right corner of the window: Clicking this icon brings up a drop-down list with Change Status as the first option. Click that option to open the same drop-down list that opens by clicking File➪Change Online Status.

How to use the Skype toolbar?

Although you can access many of Skype’s features from the main menu, the Skype toolbar displays many of these essential features on toolbar icons. The base set of icons includes the following:

• Add Contacts.
• Search: Find registered Skype users.
• Call Phones: SkypeOut from the Dial tab.
• Conference: Start a Skype conference.
• Chat: Open a chat with the selected Skype contacts.
• Send SMS: Send an SMS text message to an SMS-enabled mobile device.
• Send File: Transfer a file to one or more Skype contacts.
• Profile: Look up the profile of a selected Skype contact.
• Hold/Resume: While you are actively talking to someone on Skype, this Hold icon appears. Choosing Hold holds the call and the icon changes from Hold to Resume. It continues to stay that way until you either click Resume to resume the call or the call is ended, possibly by the other person’s hanging up. You don’t want to keep someone waiting on hold forever, do you?

When you are not actively on a call, the Hold and Resume toolbar icons are hidden altogether.

• Mute/Unmute: While you are on a call, you can mute your microphone. The icon changes from mute to unmute and stays that way until you unmute the connection or the call is ended. When you are not actively on a call, the Mute and Unmute toolbar icons are hidden altogether. We need to mention some other important features of the Skype toolbar, as follows:
• If your Skype window is narrower than the space available to display the toolbar icons, some of them are hidden. In their place on the right side of the visible toolbar is a double-arrow icon. Click the icon to display the hidden toolbar icons and then click the icons that you need.

How to use the help menu?

New Skype users typically wonder about a variety of issues. What kind of headset should I get? How do I get Skype Credit? Why are my chats archived? To answer these and other questions, Skype provides a variety of online help facilities through the Help menu. Some of these answer questions; others take you to Web pages for specific tasks such as buying Skype credit.

Help
Choosing Help➪Help opens your Web browser to the www.support.skype. com site. On this Web page, you can find links for troubleshooting, user guides, announcements from Skype, and other kinds of helpful information. The Web page also contains a searchable a knowledge base.

FAQ
Choosing Help➪FAQ takes you to a page with answers to plenty of Frequently Asked Questions.

Getting Started
This option opens a sequence of screens to give you an ultra-quick tour of Skype. The very first time you install and launch Skype on your computer, this Getting Started guide is displayed. It continues to be automatically displayed every time you launch Skype until you select the Do Not Show This Guide at Startup option.

Get Headset
This option takes you to the Skype Web store, where you can purchase Skype-certified headsets, speakerphones, webcams, and the like. Chapter 11 profiles some of these products.

Buy Skype Credit
Certain features of Skype, such as SkypeIn and some ringtones, entail a fee. For this reason, you may need to buy Skype credit.

Redeem Voucher
Many of the Skype-certified gadgets on the Skype Web store as well as some of the products described in Chapter 11 come with voucher numbers for various Skype-related features, such as free SkypeOut minutes or Voicemail. Choose Help➪Redeem Voucher to claim your free services. While we’re on the subject of vouchers, look to the end of this book for vouchers to use toward purchasing various software products for Skype. Take advantage of these offers while they last!

Check for Update
Keeping up-to-date with the latest and greatest version of Skype might be a chore if you had to remember to check for updates. Luckily, Skype makes it easy for you to automatically keep your software up-to-date because Skype does the checking for you, as follows:

• Choosing Help➪Check for Update lets you check whether you have the latest version of Skype installed.
• Choosing Tools➪Options➪Updates lets you configure Skype to either alert you about new updates or make them automatically.

For major releases, you have the option to have Skype automatically download the new release, alert you that a new release is available and ask you for permission to download, or ignore new releases altogether. Every so often, Skype may have a hotfix to a specific problem for a small number of Skype users. For these hotfixes, Skype gives you the option to automatically download, ask before downloading, or ignore updating for hotfixes altogether.

Report a Problem
If your Skype experience is not the way it’s supposed to be, you may want or need to report it to Skype. Problems can span a broad spectrum of issues ranging from general support issues to incorrect charges in your Skype account. When reporting a technical difficulty, you may enter a long and detailed message and click the Submit button, only to find that your message has not been submitted and you are instead presented with a laundry list of possible explanations for your problem. At the end of that list is a true Submit button. Skype wants you to be absolutely sure that your question is not responded to in its prepared list of responses. Do not be intimidated by this! Click Submit to have your issue addressed by some responsible person in Skype.

About
For troubleshooting purposes, it is helpful to know the version of Skype software you are running. Choosing Help➪About displays this information for you.

How to use the call menu in skype?

The Call menu enables you to manage your calls. If the Call menu appears grayed out, you are not actively engaged in any calls on Skype. While you are actually on a Skype call, or receiving an incoming call, the menu is no longer grayed out.
The following options are available from the Call menu.

Answer
You can answer an incoming call from the menu, but it is probably easier to click the green call button that is displayed with incoming calls.

Ignore
This option lets you ignore an incoming call so that you won’t hear it ring and can continue your activities without interruption.

Resume
You can place a call on hold; Resume enables you to resume the call.

Hold
You can place a call on hold and answer an incoming call if you happen to already be talking to someone on Skype and receive a call from someone else.

Mute/Unmute Microphone
During a call, you can select Mute Microphone. When you do, your microphone stops sending sound to the audio-in device. While the microphone is muted, the Mute microphone option changes to Unmute microphone.

Hang Up
At any time during a call, you can click the red hang up button to end the call. All the items available from the Call menu are generally available to you by clicking various Skype buttons and toolbar icons. Unless you need to navigate the Call menu for these options, you may find clicking a visible button to be easier and more convenient.

Changing Language in Skype

Parlez-vous français? Sprechen sie Deutsch? ¿Habla español? The Skype program can be set to more than 27 different languages. You can set your language preference by choosing Tools➪Change Language and picking one of the languages listed in the submenu.
Skype lets you set your application preferences for the following features:
General options, Privacy, Sounds, Sound devices, Hotkeys, Connection, Updates, and Advanced settings; Videoconferencing ; and Call Forwarding, Voicemail, and SMS Messages

How to Open Bookmarked Chats?

Although the Recent Chats feature is useful, you may want to retain the chat to keep it live and ongoing indefinitely. Skype gives you this ability when you bookmark a chat. Choosing Tools➪Bookmarked Chats lets you open and resume your bookmarked chats.

Recent Chats in Skype

Skype supports text chats between you and your fellow skypers. Not everybody will sit by his or her computer to keep a chat session going. And you may be in the habit of shutting down your computer every night before you go to sleep. What happens to your chat? Conveniently, Skype remembers the chat content and lets you resume where you left off. To resume a chat, choose Tools➪Recent Chats and select from a list of recent chats. If the chat has not been given a title, what shows is the last line of the chat.

How to Share Skype with a Friend?

To encourage your friends or others to try Skype, you may want to send an eCard with information about Skype and its download links. Choose Tools➪Share Skype with a Friend to open a form on which you can construct an invitation to use Skype and have the form emailed.

Ringtone in Skype

Skype lets you set the kind of ringtone you want to hear when someone calls you. Choosing Tools➪Ringtones lets you navigate and select from items in a submenu. If you are using a wireless headset and someone calls you on Skype, it would be nice to know who’s calling without having to look at your computer screen.

How to Send SMS Message in Skype?

Skype has a Short Message Service (SMS) through which you can send brief text messages to mobile phones and devices that support the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). To use this service, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools➪Send SMS Message.
2. In the Add to SMS window, select names appearing in your mobileenabled and SkypeOut contacts and click the Add button to add them to the SMS Recipients list box. Alternatively, just click and drag the name over to the SMS Recipients list box. If you want to send an SMS message to a phone number that’s not on any of your lists, space is available for entering the number. Click the Add button to add it to your list of recipients.
3. Click the OK button in the Add to SMS window and then enter your message in an SMS window; click the Send SMS button to send it.

How to Do Call Forwarding in Skype?

One of the convenient features of Skype is the ability to automatically forward incoming calls. The call can be forwarded to a Skype Name of your choosing. Optionally, it can be forwarded to a regular telephone number, although you may have to pay a fee for SkypeOut charges. What happens if the Skype number you are forwarding to doesn’t pick up the call? Skype allows you to designate up to three call forwarding numbers, and each is tried in succession.
To use Call Forwarding, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools➪Call Forwarding to open a window and choose your call forwarding settings.
2. Select the Forward Calls When I’m Not on Skype check box and enter a phone number. If you need more than one forwarding number, click the Advanced Settings link.

Voicemail in Skype

You can’t sit by your computer 24 hours a day waiting to receive incoming calls over Skype anymore than you can be near your home telephone all the time. Skype provides an optional Voicemail service that makes it easy for people to leave you messages when you are unavailable to take their call. Choosing Tools➪Voicemail opens the Call Forwarding and Voicemail panel, where you can record an audio greeting message as well as set your Voicemail preferences.