If a person for whom communication on the network is commonplace was asked how to talk on Skype, most likely he would cut it off by saying something like “loud and intelligible,” “quietly, but convincingly,” or something else something like that.
However, such questions are quite natural for novice users of the most popular messenger, because in Skype, despite its simplicity and accessibility, there are a lot of interesting and important nuances that just can not be taken from a swoop.
Turn on Skype
Before you deal with the nuances and features of communication, you need to decide on basic concepts. And then, if, for example, you don’t even know how to enable Skype, then there’s no time for talking.
Almost all programs, sitting down while downloading on your computer, place a link to themselves in the Start menu and offer to install your shortcut on the desktop. So, if you lost the “switch” from “Skype”, it means that during installation you refused the shortcut or accidentally “swiped” it from the desktop.
You can and even need to look into the notification area (tray) on the taskbar at the bottom right, by clicking on the arrow with the prompt "Show hidden icons."
If, on the Start menu, the famous logo with the white letter S in blue disappears, go to Program Files, look for the Skype folder there, and in it the Phone folder, where the file icon with the .exe extension "lives", which knows for sure how to enable skype.
What to choose from the Skype menu
At the top of its window, Skype offers a menu of six items, among which there is a traditional Help button for all programs, where all items are links to the corresponding sections of the Skype official website, with the exception of the Check Availability commands Updates "and" About Skype ".
By clicking, for example, the link “Communication Quality Guide”, we can thoroughly deal with the problems of our webcam or find out how to set up the microphone in Skype.
By clicking on the "About Skype" line, you will find out the version number of your program, which can clarify certain situations. For example, you cannot "agree" on Skype with a subscriber in any way, and he has another modification. This is why you need to check for updates more often.
On each page of the official Skype website, where we get to the links in the Help section, you will receive a detailed and specific answer to any of your questions, but many impatient users are scared by the prospect of going to sites when an answer is needed immediately.
But for this, there are other menu items where, briefly and extremely clearly, they will “explain” to us any question, including how to talk on Skype, for which, as you might guess, the Calls item serves.
Calls
In order to talk with someone, you need to become the cursor on the contact (if it is online) in the open Skype window and, by right-clicking on it, select either the Call or Video Call command. The same can be done by opening the menu item "Calls".
By choosing the Call, you can make a call by clicking on the phone number of your contact, if he indicated it in your personal data, however, the call will be paid, as you can guess when Skype offers to fund your account. In addition, here you can make a "Skype call", that is, make a free call from a computer, but with a disabled web camera, since you can talk on Skype without video, as the crossed out camera icon hints at.
Using the “Video Call” command, “Skype” will open the contact in a separate window and will tirelessly “make a video call” until the called person answers or you yourself “hang up” by clicking on its image in the red circle below.
If you decide to fork out for a paid call, you can deposit money into your Skype account using the "Calls to Phones" command in the "View" menu or by clicking on the "Dial a Number" line at the top of the Skype main window. There you can see your account and select the appropriate tariff plan.
How to reach a contact
We figured out how to talk on Skype using the "roundabout" path of clicking on the "Calls" item in the main menu of the program, but you can do it much faster by simply double-tapping the contact with the left mouse button. In response, Skype will open the selected person in a separate window, where the buttons at the top with the camera and handset correspond to the familiar Video Call and Call commands.
Left-clicking on the avatar of a contact, you will be taken to the profile window of the interlocutor, where there is an active (link) contact phone number. Right-clicking on an avatar will bring up the same context menu as clicking on a subscriber’s contact in the main window.
The third button at the top with the prompt “Add contacts” will be needed when you need to connect another participant to the group conversation on Skype. More on this later.
So, we call the contact by clicking at least the button with the camera, at least by the command in the Calls menu, and the window is transformed.
Conversation
There are no more upper buttons in the dialog window, in the center there is a smiling face of a delighted interlocutor, and below is a toolbar. Clicking on the button with the camera promises to turn off / on the video call, the button with the microphone will do the same with the sound.
By clicking on the icon with a cross, you can take a picture of the image in Skype, send files or contacts, enable a demonstration of your screen, add participants to this call and dial the phone number (dialing) on the keyboard.
The red circle with the white tube (or just the red tube) is already familiar to us (disconnect communication). The last (or first) callout button with the prompt "Show instant messages" in Skype will open a text input field, and the icon with a diagram (data on communication quality) will inform about the video signal quality, give recommendations on how to improve it, offer to select a web camera and indicate the address of the corresponding page of the Skype website on the Internet.
Above the top edge of the text field, at the bottom left, pay attention to the line “via Skype”, clicking on which will show a proposal to send an SMS message to the phone, which can be done if there is money in the account on Skype.
By clicking the blue button with a paper clip, you can send photos, files and a list of contacts, but all this will go away provided that the person you are on the network accepts files, while text messages, video messages and emoticons (the icon on the right) will go to the “other side” right away .
Talk "for three"
Ordinary situation. You talk with a friend, and here you are called by someone else from friends who will not be superfluous in the conversation, but how to talk on Skype together, if the program offers to go to another window for negotiations? This is where the button with the little man and the cross in the upper right comes in handy, by clicking on which we can select the third participant from the list of contacts (4th, 5th, 10th, etc.) and include it in the group (button "Add to Group" below).
It is possible that a message added to the group of users “must update Skype to participate in this chat”, and until they do, the conversation will not work. The message includes a link, clicking on which you can update your version of the program.
Group organization
You can create a group in advance by going to the menu item "Contacts" and selecting the command "Create a new group."
Skype will open a new window with the name "Empty Group", where you can include participants by selecting them from the list expanded by the familiar button with a cross in the upper right. If you click on the arrow next to the avatar of the group where it says how many people are already included in the group, the names of the participants will appear in the panel below. If you accidentally got the wrong one, right-click on it and select "Delete User ...".
In older versions of the program, you could simply drag the contacts with the mouse into the blue area of the window of an empty group, and now such an operation only leads to the transfer of the contact information of the selected subscriber to the conversation participants without including him in the conversation.
When the group is created, you can start a voice conference by pressing the button "Handset Call Group" or video conference (button with the camera "Video Call"). In addition, you can call from the menu of the "Calls" item, as well as from context menus deployed in the panel at the top of the contacts and group avatar.
As you can see, in the Skype program, you can make a video call in almost any corner of the dialog box, so the developers keep their word, saying: "We are doing everything possible to optimize the work of Skype ...".
If necessary, you can save the group in the contact list by selecting such a command from the list of "Conversations" or in the context menu of the group avatar. And by the command "Change Theme" the group is given a name.
Video message
In the latest versions of Skype, it became possible to send a video message if the subscriber is not at home or for some reason does not answer the call for a long time. In such cases, "Skype" and offers to transmit a video of your appeal. Having agreed (by clicking on the offer), we find ourselves in a familiar dialogue window, but instead of the other person we see ourselves (and Skype assures you that this is a “good frame”) and three new buttons below (cancel, record and send the video message). To stop recording, you need to click on the same "Record" button, then, after viewing and listening to the recording, you can overwrite, send or cancel it.
Sound problems
It happens, of course, that if the interlocutor does not hear you, your microphone is simply not connected or the plug is stuck in the wrong direction, but more often the problems are more serious and deeper.
We already mentioned at the beginning that the consultation can be obtained via the link “Communication Quality Guide” in the “Help” section, but the microphone can be configured in “Skype” in the “Tools” section of the main menu on the “Settings” tab, where you can to get by the command "Sound settings" in the menu item "Calls".
In order to deal with the microphone, on the "Skype-Settings" tab, select the "Sound Settings" line, which will open a window where everything is shown and painted so intelligibly that comments can offend even the user who first heard the word "microphone".
But, before contacting the settings, it is recommended to call the default “answering machine contact” named “Echo / Sound Test Service”.
Call Echo and make a call by pressing the handset button. Judging by her voice, the girl will “answer the phone” and will instruct you on further actions, having completed which, you will hear everything that Echo “thinks” about your microphone.