Getting to know Pamela

The seeds for Pamela were first sown during the infancy of Skype. With only 10,000 Skype users on the whole planet at that time, Skype was like a diamond in the rough. This situation offered a splendid combination of high potential, the ability to accommodate improvements, and the longing for someone to take and enhance the product. That someone was Dick Schiferli, the head of Pamela Systems. Over the last two years, both Skype and Pamela have evolved and continued to incorporate userrequested features.
Pamela is a well-thought-out tool for managing your messages. You’ll find different levels of functionality depending on which edition of the product that you use. There’s a Basic Edition that you can download for free. But rather than encourage you to go wading in that kiddy pool, we think you probably want to know (and put to use) a set of features found in the higher-end editions of Pamela. Go check out the Professional Edition; you’ll be glad you did.

Pamela is alert

When you work with Skype, you’ll discover a tendency to start accumulating Skype contacts. You may also discover a tendency to overlook some of the information that’s floating around in your Skype database, but Pamela helps you realize just how much info you have.
For example, we like to experiment and tinker, so we decided to launch Pamela with a reasonable number of Skype contacts just to see how it operates. To our surprise, while Pamela loaded, it reminded us that our friend Hannes’ birthday was that day (see Figure) and prompted us to make contact. We didn’t expect this kind of volunteered information, but we certainly welcomed it! Conveniently, Pamela scours your contacts list to see whose birthday is around the corner.

Pamela Is Not Just Another Pretty Voice

Named after the Skype alias of a Skype marketer’s girlfriend, Pamela is one of the first add-on programs available for Skype. Not only is Pamela (like her namesake) elegant, she’s also well designed and feature rich. Pamela comes in various editions (distinguished by varying levels of functionality) and is a handy tool for managing your Skype messages. (Check out www.pamelasystems.com for how-to information on getting Pamela.)

Rather than bore you with a list of features that you can find on numerous product data sheets online, we think it is more interesting, revealing, and in keeping with the spirit of playfulness to introduce you to the real personality of Pamela. So what can we say about Pamela? Well, Pamela is alert; she doesn’t forget anything (unless you tell her to). She is very attentive. This gal has real Web savvy and she always knows whom she’s talking to. Pamela is appropriately polite and punctual. But of course, she wouldn’t be very interesting if she didn’t have her moods.

Organizing messages

When you install the Skylook plugin, the program automatically creates a Skylook Conversations folder that you can access within Outlook. The Skylook Conversations folder functions just like the folders that store your email, but it contains voicemail, chats, and recorded sessions, as well.
Consider these ideas for keeping the contents of your Skylook Conversations folder organized:

• Treat the files as though they were emails. Move conversations to another folder, flag them, mark them as unread, or delete them.
• Organize your archived conversations by date, category, from, for, size, subject, type, flag, email, importance, and even by conversation.
• Review all communication in a particular thread, or with a particular individual, to get a snapshot of an ongoing project. Go through your messages by listening, reading, and printing chats.
• Share your messages by forwarding them to friends and colleagues through email or by collecting and putting them in a public folder.

When your messages are properly sorted, you can follow up on each one more easily. You can return a Skype call, send a reply to that chat, or listen once again to a voice message or recorded conversation. You know which contacts are online because the Skype status system (the feature that shows your online Skype availability) works within Skylook. If someone’s status is Online, Available, or better yet, in Skype Me mode, by all means, make that call!

Making WAVs or, better yet, MP3s

Another new productivity tool Skylook brings to Outlook is conversation recording and archiving. Suppose that you set up an Outlook appointment to skype Bob and discuss the details of an upcoming workshop. Rather than take notes during your conversation, you can use Skylook’s tools to record, preserve, and store the conversation.
To the right of the orange Skylook Tools icon on the Skylook toolbar is a small triangular “notch” for Skylook Options and Other Functions. Clicking this icon opens a menu. Select Options and click the Recording tab; from there, you can set the recording conversations features with the following choices:

• To automatically record all calls. When automatic recording is active, the recording starts as soon as you make or receive a Skype call.
• To record only your side or both sides of the conversation. Select either Record My Voice Only or Record All Voices. You can set this option to apply separately to Skype-to-Skype calls or to SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls.

Recording the voices of other parties may be subject to legal limitations in some jurisdictions. These limitations may require you to notify the other party that the conversation is being recorded. In some cases, recording the other party, even with notice, may not be legal. Please verify the limitations for your jurisdiction. Even though you may be recording a conversation for your own internal use, it is always good to be considerate and courteous and inform the other party that you are recording the conversation. The Skype Call Monitor is a floating window that pops up to let you know a call is being recorded. When you expand the Skype Call Monitor, it becomes a larger window that displays real-time information about the recording in progress. The information that is monitored includes the length of the recording (in minutes and seconds) as it happens and the size of the recorded file (in KB) as it grows. If you capture every Skype conversation, you may need a lot more hard drive space (and tons of free time to listen to all those conversations again).

Suppose that you schedule a meeting (that is, a Skype conversation) with your good friend Bob in Outlook. When the meeting is about to start, a screen pops up as a reminder to make your Skype call. Click the reminder icon to open your appointment window. You then select Bob’s name in the Contacts box, click the Skype Voice Call button, and you are connected over Skype to good old Bob. If you have call recording enabled, the conversation is automatically recorded and saved as an MP3 file when you log off the call. Skylook then parks the MP3 file in a Skylook Conversations folder. Voice call recording is a full-productivity-mode feature of Skylook. This feature is available in the business, home, or academic versions of Skylook. Basic Skylook, which is free, does not offer any recording tools. In addition to recording conversations, this full productivity mode adds contacts to your Skylook Toolbar, saves your voicemail messages to your Outlook Inbox, and creates a Skype Conversations folder to gather and organize Skype conversations.

When you have full-productivity mode enabled, Skylook presents you with choices in the Skylook Recorded the Conversation For You dialog box. For example, you have the option of emailing the MP3 of your just-recorded conversation to Bob. This handy option saves you from rummaging around trying to find the recording. Simply click the Email a Copy To button, and the recording is on its way.
If you don’t want to record a call, just click the Stop button in the Call Monitor toolbar. If you stop a recording during a Skylook call, the entire recording is deleted. If you want a portion of a conversation preserved, hang up and then reconnect to finish the part you don’t want recorded. The MP3 file of your recorded portion will be tucked away in the Skylook Conversations folder.
Try using Skylook’s recording feature to produce podcasts or online presentations. You can set Skylook options to make sure that you record both sides of the conversation for interviews or conferences. And if you use Skylook calling to coach, mentor, or present to a group, you can choose to record only your lecture so that you avoid capturing any noise from the others on the call.

Please leave a message . . .

Outlook users tend to keep their Inbox open all the time, expecting little alert beeps when emails come in. A system that is always open like this needs to also handle messages delivered when the intended recipient is away from the desk. Outlook archives and organizes email messages, but it has limited capacity to respond automatically. Usually, the only option is a general automated email reply that answers for you when you’re on vacation or at a conference. But because Skype adds voice capabilities to the mix, Skylook adds voicemail through the Skylook Answering Machine. The Skylook Answering Machine records calls and stores voicemail messages in your Inbox, handling them just like Outlook handles emails. You control when the answering machine responds according to your choice of availability options that you find in your Skype program.
Following are some options you have for controlling the Skylook Answering Machine:

• When and how to answer: If you choose, the answering machine activates when your Skype status displays Away, Not Available, or Do not Disturb. You can also choose how long to let the Skype caller ring before the answering machine picks up, even if your Web status shows you are available.
• See who’s calling before you answer: Sometimes you just don’t feel like talking. Of course, because it’s a Skype call, you can see who is calling, glance at the caller’s profile, do a quick search for archived messages, and then decide whether you want to pick up.
• Listen (or not) to messages coming in: If you decide not to pick up a call, you can hear the message as it’s being recorded, or you can mute the sound if you don’t want to be disturbed.
• Work in conjunction with Skype Voicemail: Skylook Answering Machine works even if you have Skype Voicemail service. The two don’t fight each other to answer calls. Whichever picks up first takes the message. Whether a call comes in from Skype Voicemail or through Skylook, all incoming messages are stored in the Outlook Inbox if the program is open. If Skylook is not active, Skype Voicemail takes the messages.
• Record a personal greeting for callers to hear: Skylook has a built-in voice recorder, so a simple wizard screen offers the choice to record a personalized greeting.

On the surface, the Skylook voicemail system works just like ordinary voicemail. Someone calls, hears a greeting, and leaves a message. But because these messages are digital and show up in the Outlook Inbox, you can sort, save, and even email them. And voice messages aren’t the only kind saved;
Skylook will also store missed text chat messages in your Inbox. Using Outlook with the Skylook plugin gives your clients, friends, and family even more ways to communicate with you. Direct calls, emails, text chats, and voice messages are all available — and you are no longer unreachable.

Synching with Skylook

Suppose that your company has several thousand active Outlook accounts. Synching up one contact at a time would be out of the question, but using the SkySync Wizard makes this contact mapping possible. SkySync launches automatically during the Skylook setup, but if you want to update your contact links subsequently, choose Tools>SkySync to open the SkySync Wizard and select Search the Global Skype Network for More Matching Skype Users. SkySync goes through all your Outlook contacts and searches for possible matches on the Skype network. Skylook presents possible matches. For each potential match, Skylook asks you whether you want them linked. Suddenly you see that good old Bob has a Skype account, and SkySync links it to Bob’s contact information in your Outlook program. After your Outlook Contacts link up with Skype, simply select Bob from your contacts in Outlook and skype him via the Skylook plugin. To start a new Skype conversation with Bob, follow these simple steps:

1. Select your Outlook Contact name.
2. Click Skype Voice Call in the Skylook toolbar. Skylook double-checks your intentions and asks whether you really want to call your contact.
3. If you really want to have a Skype conversation, click OK.
4. Start talking!