170 Spoons

Skype Best Practices

WHY? When you install Skype, there are some settings you should be aware of.

So you took my advice and installed Skype, did ya? Good! Let’s make sure it’s set up well for you so it won’t feel like it’s intrusive or a pain because it really doesn’t have to be!

General Settings

The very first thing I do after downloading Skype is to go into the settings and get a few things working the way I think it should. To get to these, open Skype then on the menu go to Tools then Options. A box should open with tabs on the left. You should be in the General Settings right now.

First thing I suggest you do is chose to “start a chat” when you double-click a contact. It is a pain if you accidentally double-click a name and it starts to dial. This way a chat box will open and the other person won’t be bothered.

Next you should decide if you want Skype to always be on or not. I usually keep it on so that others can connect with me. Therefore I have the box checked that tells it to start Skype when I turn on my computer.

Privacy Settings

The next tab allows you to make sure you are not bothered by people you don’t know.

I have mine set so that anyone can chat with me, but only my contacts can call me. I do this because I know that if they start a chat, I can always block them later. Now I feel more secure with these settings.

Advanced Settings

To me there really aren’t a lot of settings to be worried about in this section.

However, you may consider not allowing Skype to associate itself with callto: links on the web. If this is checked and you run across a link like that online, Skype will be used as your default phone. It’s up to you.

View Tabs and Panels

Skype comes with all sorts of nifty features they call “tabs and panels”. Most of them I don’t care about. To change what shows up in your main Skype window go to View, Tabs and Panels, and uncheck what you don’t want to show. I just have three tabs: Contacts, Call Phones, and History. And that’s all I ever really use.

Change Status

One last item you will find useful is at the top of your Skype window is to adjust your status from time to time. You can enter a statement that will let your contacts know what you are up to. You can also let people know if you need to not be bothered or not by clicking on the green checkmarked icon. You’ll see many choices of how to show your contacts if this is a bad time or not to contact you.

Bonus tip: Do you twitter (I’m not explaining that yet — later) on a PC? You can have twitter updates automatically update your Skype status with Twype.

Text Chat First

One last best practice I’d like to share is if you want to use voice or video talking with someone, send them a chat message first like “can you voice chat”? Sometimes I don’t have my microphone plugged in and it can feel like a stress with Skype ringing while you rustle for your equipment. Just send a text first. Everyone appreciates it! It’s also nice to have that text window open while voice chatting to send the other person (or people in a conference call) notes or web addresses.

What are some of your best practices and/or settings that you have found useful? Happy Skyping!