Chapter 3: Staying in Touch with Messages and FaceTime

In This Chapter

Setting up Messages

Changing modes in Messages

Adding Buddies

Chatting with others

Sharing screens with another person

Sending and receiving files via Messages

Ignoring those who deserve to be shunned

Adding visual pizzazz with video backgrounds and effects

Chatting face-to-face with FaceTime

Throughout humankind’s history, our drive has been toward communication. From the earliest cave paintings, through written language, to the telegraph, telephone, and now the ultimate in human interaction: the text message. Ah, technological rapture! Of course, the very same text messages that your family craves can also send your cellphone bill through the roof. (The classic Catch-22 quandry.)

Ah, but wait. Here are Apple and Mountain Lion to the rescue, so forget that silly cellular phone and your complicated calling plan! As long as you have Mac OS X and an Internet connection, you can instantly chat with your friends and family whether they’re across the aisle in another cube or halfway across the world. In fact, you can text anyone with a Mac or an iOS5 or later device (like an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch) absolutely free. And, by golly, if the two of you have a FaceTime HD camera, Mac-compatible web camera, or digital video (DV) camcorder connected to your computers, you’ll see each other in glorious, full-color video! These modern marvels are Messages and FaceTime, and they fulfill the decades-old promise of the video telephone quite well, thank you.

In this chapter, I show you how to gab with the following folks:

Other Mac owners who use Messages (either on your local network or on the Internet)

Mac, iPhone 4 or later, iPod touch, and iPad 2nd generation or later owners

Sending and receiving iMessages requires iOS 5 or later, and FaceTime requires iOS 4.1 and later.

Anyone who uses AIM (America Online [AOL] Instant Messaging), Jabber, Yahoo!, or Google Talk

Folks who participate in AOL chat rooms

Configuring Messages

The first time you run Messages (click the Messages icon on the Dock or within Launchpad), you’re prompted to create an iMessage account by entering your Apple ID (which you created while setting up Mountain Lion, or through the App Store as I demonstrate in Book I, Chapter 3). You use your iMessage account to send and receive free messages to others using either a Mac or an iOS 5 device (like an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad).

An instant message (IM, like those exchanged on AIM and Google Talk) is different from an iMessage (which can be exchanged only with others using Macs or Apple iOS 5 devices). Messages can send and receive both types. If you used iChat in an earlier version of Mac OS X, you were limited to just instant messages, audio chatting, and video chatting.

If you’re already using AIM, Jabber, Yahoo!, or Google Talk and you want to use your existing IM account, open the Account Type pop-up menu and choose the correct type; then enter your existing account name and password instead.

Alternatively, select the type of account you want and click the Get an Account button. Messages launches Safari and whisks you to the web page where you can sign up for that type of account.

You can also choose to set up Bonjour messaging. Think of Bonjour as plug-and-play IM for your local network. In Messages, Bonjour allows you to see (and yak with) anyone on your local network without having to know his account information because Bonjour automatically announces all the Messages users who are available on your network. If you have others using Messages, Jabber, Yahoo!, or AIM on your local network, go for this option; if you’re not connected to a local network, however, Bonjour messaging isn’t necessary. Also, if you’re on a public AirPort/AirPort Extreme network or if you’re connecting to the Internet with an external modem through dialup, I recommend disabling Bonjour messaging. (For all that’s cool about AirPort Extreme, see Book VI, Chapter 3.) To turn on Bonjour messaging, choose Messages⇒Preferences, click the Accounts tab, click the Bonjour account to select it, and then select the Enable Bonjour Instant Messaging check box.

Working with Messages

After you finish these configuration necessities, Messages displays the window that you see in Figure 3-1. Time for introductions all around!

If you want to send an iMessage to other Mac owners (or owners of iOS 5 devices), use the Messages window. In fact, if you already have an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iOS 5 or later, you’ll probably immediately recognize the Conversation list on the left, which displays each individual with whom you’ve recently exchanged iMessages. Click an individual in the list to review past conversations (and optionally continue them). The right side of the Messages window contains the actual iMessages sent back and forth, which I cover later in the chapter.

Only folks using either a Mac running Mountain Lion or an iOS 5 device can send and receive iMessages.

If you’ve used iChat in previous versions of Mac OS X, you may be lamenting the demise of your old friend, the Buddies List — but don’t despair, it’s still around! You can display the familiar Buddies window (shown in Figure 3-2) at any time by pressing +1 or by choosing Window⇒Buddies from the Messages menu bar. Use the Buddy window to invite others to chat using instant messaging (like AIM, Google Talk, and Jabber).

A few things to note here about these two windows within Messages:

If you don’t like your picture, don’t panic. By default, Messages uses your user account thumbnail image as your visual persona. However, you can add a picture to your Messages by dragging an image to the well next to your name at the top of the Buddies window. If necessary, Messages asks you to position and size the image so that it fits in the (admittedly limited) space. This picture is then sent along with your words when you chat. In the figures for this chapter, I borrow the somewhat dour expression of a screech owl.

Click your image to display your recent thumbnails. This way, you can even use a different thumbnail image for each of your many moods. (Geez.) Also, you can click Camera from the pop-up menu and capture a new thumbnail with your FaceTime HD camera.

Check out the buttons along the bottom of the Buddies window. In order, these buttons are

• Add a New Buddy: Covered in the following section

• Start a Text Chat: Plain, old-fashioned chatting via the keyboard

• Start an Audio Chat: Chatting with your voice, using microphones

• Start a Video Chat: The ultimate chat, where the parties can both see and hear each other

• Start Screen Sharing: Where you can view — or even remotely control — a Buddy’s computer

Using these buttons can handle about 90 percent of the commands that you need to give while using Messages, so use ’em!

Hey, look, there’s a Messages menu bar icon! When you’re running Messages, you can add a balloon menu bar icon in the upper-right corner of your screen. Click it to display the options that you see in Figure 3-3. You can change your online/offline status, immediately invite a Buddy for a chat, or display the Buddy list (which I discuss later in the section, “Will You Be My Buddy?”). The menu bar icon appears only if you select the Show Status in Menu Bar check box. Click Messages in the menu and choose Preferences; then click the General button in the Preference dialog.

The Messages menu bar icon can even launch the application! Click the Messages icon in the Finder menu bar and select New Message at the bottom of the menu, and Mountain Lion launches Messages automatically.

Changing Modes in Messages

Here’s an important note: Just because Messages is running doesn’t mean you’re ready to converse! If you’re not already familiar with the terms online and offline, here’s the scoop: When you’re online, folks can invite you to chat and communicate with you. When you’re offline, you’re disconnected: Messages isn’t active, you can’t be paged, you can’t chat, and that is that. Your status applies only to IM and IM chat although not to iMessages, which can be sent or received at any time.

Switching modes is easy, and you can do it in several different ways:

Choose Available or Offline from the friendly Messages Finder menu bar icon, which looks like a “speech bubble” from a comic book.

If the Messages window is visible, open the Mode pop-up menu at the lower left of the window.

If the Buddies window is visible, open the Mode pop-up menu under your name at the upper left of the window.

If the Buddies window is visible, you can also click a Buddy name directly, which automatically switches Messages to online mode and starts a conversation with that Buddy.

You can use Away mode whenever Messages is running and you’re still online but not available. For example, if I’m away from my Mac for a few minutes, I leave Messages running, but I switch myself to Away mode. My Buddies get a message saying that I’m Away, so they won’t bother trying to contact me. When I return to my computer, I simply move my mouse, and Messages intelligently inquires as to whether I’d like to return to Available mode. You can also use the menu bar icon to switch from Away to Available (or my other favorite mode, Twiddling My Thumbs).

Messages can even display which iTunes song you’re listening to. Pick Current iTunes Song from the menu and impress your friends with your digital audio techno-powers.

Speaking of modes, you, too, can create a custom mode — like Bored stiff! or Listening to the Pointy-Haired Boss — and use it instead of the somewhat mundane choices of Available and Away. You can do this from either the Messages or the Buddies window: Open Mode pop-up menu on either window, and then click Custom Available or Custom Away to create your new mode. An edit box appears, in which you can type the new mode; press Return to automatically add the newcomer to your mode list.

To choose an existing mode, click it; modes with a green bullet are online modes, and red bullet modes are offline modes. (Apple provides you with some starting choices, like Surfing the Web for Available and In a Meeting for Away.) Notice in Figure 3-3 that I created a custom mode called Getting Another Diet Coke . . . cAfFeInE fills my life.

If you decide your status list is getting a bit too lengthy with all those custom messages, open the Mode pop-up menu in either window and choose Edit Status Menu. Both the Available and Away list boxes have a Delete button (a minus sign). Just click the offending status message to select it and then click the Delete button to take care of business.

Will You Be My Buddy?

I know that question sounds a little personal, but in Messages, a Buddy is anyone with whom you want to chat using instant messaging, whether the topic is work related or your personal life. Messages keeps track of your Buddies in the Buddy list. You can also add them to your Contacts database or use the AIM entry in a Contacts card to generate a new Buddy identity.

To add a new Buddy, follow these steps:

1. With the Buddies window visible, choose Buddies⇒Add Buddy (or click the Add a New Buddy button at the bottom of the Buddies window and choose Add Buddy from the pop-up menu, or press +Shift+A).

Messages displays a sheet where you can enter the instant messaging account information for your new Buddy.

2. To create a Buddy entry from a Contacts card who has an IM username, click the down-arrow button next to the Last Name box to display the Contacts list. Click the entry to select it.

As a shortcut, you can also click in the First Name box and then type the person’s first name or click in the Account Name box and type the person’s IM account name.

3. To add a new person who’s not already in your Contacts database, type the person’s IM account name.

4. Click Add to save the Buddy information.

Even when you add a new Buddy and that name appears in the Buddy list, don’t be surprised if the name actually fades out after a few seconds. That indicates that the person is offline and unavailable. You can also tell when a person is available if her name appears with a green bullet in the Buddy list.

You can also specify a number of actions that Messages should take if a Buddy logs in or out of instant messaging, or if a Buddy changes status to Available. To display these actions, click the desired Buddy’s entry in your Buddy list and then press +Shift+I. (From the menu, choose Buddies⇒Show Info.) Click the Alerts button and then choose the event that should trigger the action from the Event pop-up menu. Select the desired check box to specify whether Messages should play the sound that you select, run an AppleScript, speak an announcement, or animate the Messages icon by “bouncing” it on the Dock.

Click the Address Card button on the Info dialog to enter or edit the person’s

Real first and last names

Nickname

E-mail

Phone

Instant messaging address

Buddy picture

The View menu offers a number of neat options to help you organize and customize your Buddy list. You can sort your Buddy list by first name, last name, or availability, and you can choose to display full names, short names or handles (nicknames). You can also toggle the display of offline Buddies.

Chat! Chat, I Say!

Turn your attention to getting the attention of others — through inviting others to chat. Good chatting etiquette implies inviting someone to a conversation rather than barging in unannounced. Note that you don’t have to invite someone to start an iMessage conversation in the Messages window. I’m talking either an IM chat or an existing IM chat room here.

If you want to join a chat already in progress, choose File⇒Go to Chat Room (or press +Control+G). Depending on the service being used, you might have to specify both the type of chat and the specific chat room name.

At this point, it’s time to draw your attention to the green phone and video icons next to each person in your Buddy list (as well as next to your own name at the top of the list). If the green phone icon appears next to both your name and your Buddy’s name, you can enjoy a two-way audio (or voice) chat. If both you and your Buddy (or Buddies) are lucky enough to have FaceTime HD, USB webcams, or DV cameras connected to your Macs, you can jump into a real-time, two-way video chat room, complete with audio. Time for a very important Mark’s Maxim that’s violated a surprising number of times:

Always wear a shirt while chatting with video, no matter your impressive physique. Always.

If your Mac has a microphone or video camera hooked up but you don’t see these icons, click the Video menu and make sure that the Audio Chat Enabled and Video Chat Enabled menu items are selected.

To invite someone to a simple text-only IM chat, click the desired Buddy from the Buddy list, click Buddies, and then choose Start New Chat. (Using the mouse, right-click the Buddy in the list and choose Send Instant Message.)

To invite someone to an IM audio chat, choose Buddies⇒Invite to Audio Chat. To invite a Buddy to an IM video chat, choose Buddies⇒Invite to Video Chat. You can also click directly on the phone or camera icon next to the person’s name in your Buddy list.

If you’re ready to video chat with a FaceTime-compatible Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch owner, you’ll find a complete discussion of FaceTime at the end of this chapter. Unlike an IM video chat, you start a FaceTime conversation in one of two ways: Click the FaceTime icon on the Dock, or click the FaceTime icon at the top right of the Messages window. Both methods will launch the FaceTime application.

The recipient of your IM audio or video chat invitation can decline or accept your chat invitation. You’re notified (as delicately as possible) if the chat has been declined. After you invite someone to chat (or you opt to simply send an IM), the action switches to the Messages window (for text chats) or to a separate window (for audio and video chats). For text chats, simply type into the text box at the bottom of the Messages window and then press Return to send the message.

Messages displays what type of conversation you’re having in two spots — at the top of the window and in the text box — making it easier to differentiate between IM and iMessage conversations. For example, in Figure 3-4, you can see the word iMessage is displayed at the top of the conversation and in the text box.

If you’d like to add a smiley (often called an “emoticon”) to your message, click the Smileys drop-down menu at the right of the text box (as shown in Figure 3-4) and choose just the right symbol. (You can also choose Edit⇒Insert Smiley.)

While text chatting, you don’t have to alternate sending messages back and forth between participants because everyone in a chat can compose and send messages at the same time. Me, I like to alternate when I’m chatting one-on-one.

If someone invites you to an audio or video chat, you get the opposite side of the coin: A prompt dialog appears, and you can choose to accept or decline the invitation. (If it’s a video chat, you even get a video preview of the person inviting you.)

You can also change fonts and colors while composing a line of text. Simply select the text and then choose Format⇒Show Fonts or Format⇒Show Colors. (Press +T or +Shift+C to display the Font panel and Color Picker, respectively.) These windows can be resized and moved wherever you like, as shown earlier in Figure 3-4.

Messages doesn’t limit you to just a chat between computers! You can also choose to ship off an e-mail message from within Messages. Click a person in the Buddy list and click the Buddies menu; click Send Email to automatically launch Apple Mail (or your default e-mail application).

When the Messages window is active, a number of display choices can be made from the View menu. Click the Messages item in the View menu to display these options, including

Show as Text: Each line that you write and receive in a chat can be displayed in balloons (just like your favorite comic) or as simple text. You can also choose to display text lines in the more traditional boxes or as compact text (allowing more room for more characters in the Messages window).

Show Names and Pictures: Each line can be displayed with the individual’s picture, just the name, or both the name and picture.

If you’re tired of the default background for the chat window — or you want to select a default font and text color for either your messages or those from others — click Messages and choose Preferences from the menu, and then click the Messages toolbar button. Use the Background Color, Font Color, and Set Font controls to fine-tune things as you like.

Curious about the capabilities of your Mac hardware in Messages? Choose Video⇒Connection Doctor, where you can view statistics and information about your current chat, display the features of Messages that are supported by your Mac and your connection, and also view any error messages that are generated by Messages during this session.

If you’re holding multiple conversations within the Messages window, you can switch between windows by clicking the desired conversation in the Conversation List to make it active. To close an IM chat or an iMessage conversation, click a conversation in the list to select it and then click the Close button that appears (it bears an X symbol).

Conversing with iMessages

So you’d like to send and receive those free iMessages I mention earlier with your sister in Poughkeepsie? As long as she has a Mac of her own (or a snazzy iOS 5 device) and a Wi-Fi or 3G/4G connection, you’re ready to go.

Click the Compose New Message icon at the top of the Messages window to start a new conversation. The cursor appears in the To field, and you can

Do things manually. Type the person’s name, e-mail address, or telephone number directly into the To field. The information you enter depends on the recipient’s device — for example, sending an iMessage to an iPhone requires a telephone number, and an iPad or iPod touch needs an e-mail address — and whether that person has a card in your Contacts database that already has the required information.

Choose a Contact or Buddy. Click the blue plus sign to display a pop-up menu, where you can select a Buddy from your list or a person from your Contacts database. To search for a specific person, click in the Search box and type a portion of the name.

From this point on, an iMessage conversation is very similar to an IM chat; Figure 3-5 illustrates an iMessage conversation in progress. Type the desired text into the box at the bottom of the window and then press Return to send your iMessage. To close a conversation, right-click the offending conversation in the list and choose Close Conversation. (You can also select the conversation and click the Close button that appears, which carries an X.)

Sharing Screens with Aplomb

How often have you wanted to show someone a neat new application, or lead your Aunt Mildred through the paces of setting up an Apple TV connection on her system? That’s the idea behind the ultimate collaboration tool Sharing Screens, where you can watch (or even remotely control) the display on another person’s Mac, across any broadband Internet or local network connection.

Screen Sharing must be turned on for you to send or receive sharing invites. Choose Video⇒Screen Sharing Enabled. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the feature is enabled.

If a Buddy invites you to share a screen, you receive a prompt that you accept or decline. (You can also request to share a Buddy’s screen by choosing Buddies⇒Ask to Share Screen.) If you accept the sharing invitation, Messages automatically initiates an audio chat (so that you can gab away to each other while things are happening onscreen). Suddenly, you’re seeing the Desktop and applications that your Buddy is running, and you can both control the cursor and left- or right-click the mouse.

Throughout the screen-sharing session, Messages maintains a semi-opaque panel on your screen that has three buttons:

End the Shared Screen Session: Click this button to exit shared screen mode.

Switch Desktops: Click this button to swap between your Mac’s screen and the remote Mac’s screen. (Those Mac owners who have enabled Fast User Switching will recognize the cool screen swap animation.)

Mute Audio: Click this button to mute the audio during the screen- sharing session.

To invite a Buddy to share your screen, choose Buddies⇒Share My Screen.

Okay, if sharing a screen with someone you don’t absolutely know and trust doesn’t set off alarm bells in your cranium, it should. Remember, anyone with shared screen access to you computer can perform most of the same actions on your Mac as you can, just as if that person were sitting in front of your Mac. Granted, most of the truly devastating things would require you to type your admin password, but a malicious individual could still delete files or wreak havoc any number of ways on your system. Be careful with whom you share your screen!

Sending Files with Messages

To send a file to a Buddy via instant messaging, click the desired entry in the Buddy list and then choose Buddies⇒Send File. Alternatively, you can

Use the +Option+F keyboard shortcut.

Right-click the Buddy in the list and choose Send a File.

Drag the file from a Finder window to the person’s entry in the Buddy list.

Drag the file into the text typing window.

How’s that for convenience? No matter how you start the transfer, a dialog appears to indicate that the recipient is being offered a file transfer request. If the file transfer request is accepted by your Buddy, the transfer begins and is saved where the recipient specifies on her system.

If a Buddy sends you a file, the Incoming File Request pane appears. You can then either click the Decline button (to decline the file transfer) or the Save File button (to save the incoming file to any spot on your system).

To send a file during an iMessage conversation, choose Buddies⇒Send File, use the +Option+F keyboard shortcut, or drag the file from a Finder window and drop it into the text box within the Messages window.

Always check any files that you receive from Messages with your antivirus scanning software before you run them!

If you’re looking for another easy method of sending files between Mac computers running Mountain Lion, don’t forget to check out AirDrop. I discuss this new feature in Book VI, Chapter 2. Messages does, however, have two important advantages over AirDrop: The two computers don’t have to be within Wi-Fi range of each other, and Messages can transfer files with a wider range of computers (PCs running Windows, Macs running older versions of OS X, and PCs running Linux).

Eliminating the Riffraff

Here I need to explain something that I hope you won’t have to use — what I like to call the Turkey Filter. Messages is a little more subtle. You just “ignore” people.

To ignore someone in a chat group, click her name in the list and choose Buddies⇒Ignore <person>. When someone is ignored in a chat group, you don’t see anything that she types or have to respond to any file transfer requests from that person.

If only it were that easy to ignore someone when he’s standing close to you.

Anyway, if the person becomes a royal pain, you can also choose to block that person entirely. That way, the offensive cur doesn’t even know that you’re online, and he can’t reach you at all. Click the person in the list and choose Buddies⇒Block <person> — the deed is done.

Adding Visual Effects

Our esteemed Apple software developers decided to bring a little Hollywood special effects “flash” to Messages with video backdrops. You can also use many of the special effects filters provided by Photo Booth to keep your video chat room laughing!

To add a video backdrop to your video feed, choose Video⇒Video Preview to display your stunning self in a live video feed; then choose Video⇒Show Video Effects. Use the scroll buttons to move to the backdrop thumbnails toward the end of the Effects library. When you click one, Messages prompts you to leave the frame for a few seconds so that the plain background behind you can be correctly “masked” (just like those blockbuster special effects used in today’s films). When your background has been captured and masked, Messages prompts you to return to your spot, and you’ll see that your new static or animated backdrop is in place. Just plain cool!

The plainer the background behind you, the better Messages can process and mask your background. A plain wall painted a single color works best.

“But, Mark, I want my own movies and photos for backgrounds!” No problem. Messages provides eight user-defined backdrop slots for your own selections at the end of the Video Effects collection. (Click the right scroll arrow in the Video Effects window until you reach the last couple of pages.) To add your own visuals, you can

Drag a video from iMovie to an empty User Backdrop well in the Video Effects window.

Drag a photo from iPhoto to an empty User Backdrop well in the Video Effects window.

Drag a video or photo from a Finder window to an empty User Backdrop well in the Video Effects window.

As long as an item can be displayed in Quick Look, it can be used as a video background. Think of the possibilities!

To try out a Photo Booth effect in Messages, choose Video⇒Video Preview to display your live video feed; then choose Video⇒Show Video Effects (or press +Shift+E). Figure 3-6 illustrates the Video Preview and Video Effects windows; click a video effect thumbnail to see how it looks on you in the Preview window! Effects range from simple Black & White to a Thermal Camera look, an Andy Warhol–style Pop Art display, and a number of really cool optical distortions (such as Twirl and Light Tunnel).

After you find just the right video effect, close the two windows and start chatting. If you decide you’d rather return your video persona to something more conventional, display the Video Effects window again and click the Original thumbnail (which appears in the center of each screen of thumbnails).

Conversing with FaceTime

Although Messages’ standard video chat is downright nifty, it has limits: You’re confined to your IM buddies, and those folks may not have the necessary video hardware. With Apple’s FaceTime technology, however, you can video chat with owners of iOS devices and Macs without the constraints of instant messaging accounts — and if they can run FaceTime, they’re guaranteed to have the right video hardware.

At the time of this writing, FaceTime-compatible devices include

Macs running Lion and Mountain Lion

Mac owners running Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later can also buy the FaceTime application from the App Store.

An iPhone 4 or 4s running iOS 4.1 or higher

A second or third-generation iPad running iOS 4.1 or higher

A fourth generation or later iPod Touch running iOS 4.1 or higher

If you’re running a device under iOS 6 or later, you can use FaceTime over both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G connections. If you’re using a device running iOS 5 or earlier, however, you’ll need a Wi-Fi connection to use FaceTime with a mobile device. A 3G/4G cellular connection will not work. A Mac requires either a wired or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use FaceTime.

To launch FaceTime, click the jaunty-looking video camera icon on the Dock. The first time you use the application, you have to enter your Apple ID and your e-mail address. The folks you chat with on the other end use that same e-mail address to call you via FaceTime. (iPhone 4 or later owners can be called using their telephone numbers.)

To change the e-mail address that other FaceTime users use to call you, choose FaceTime⇒Preferences and then click the E-mail link under the heading You Can Be Reached For Calls At.

After you sign in, FaceTime displays your Contacts database by default. To initiate a call with any contact, click the name in the list, and FaceTime displays the e-mail and telephone numbers for the contact (once again, taken from your Contacts). Click the e-mail or telephone number that FaceTime should use, and the connection process begins. To return to the Contacts list and choose another person, click the All Contacts button at the top of the window.

Apple isn’t satisfied with a mere Contacts list, however. You can use a number of other methods of selecting someone to call:

Recent Calls: Click the Recents button to choose a contact that you’ve called (or attempted to call) within the recent past. Click the All or Missed buttons at the top of the window to further filter the Recents list.

Groups: If you’ve set up one or more groups within your Contacts database, you can display them by clicking the Groups button. For example, if you’ve created a Contacts group containing all those fellow employees within your company, you can easily locate and call a specific person without wading through all your friends and family as well.

FaceTime Search: Click within the familiar Search box and begin typing the contact’s first or last name, and FaceTime displays the matching entries.

Favorites: Sure, you have folks you like to chat with all the time, and it’s easy to add them to the Favorites list. (Those who don’t make the Favorites list don’t have to know, right?) Click the desired contact, and then click the Add to Favorites button. To display your favorite contacts at any time, click the Favorites button in the FaceTime window.

When the call is accepted, you’ll see a large video window with a smaller “picture-in-picture” display (you can drag the smaller display to any desired spot in the window). The video from the other person fills the large window, and the video that you’re sending to them appears in the small display, as shown in Figure 3-7.

Move your mouse cursor into the FaceTime window, and you’ll see the window controls appear, as well as three icons at the bottom of the window:

Mute: Click the mute icon to turn off the sound coming from your Mac. FaceTime displays a reminder that mute is enabled. (You’ll continue to hear the audio from the other person.) To restore your audio feed, click the mute icon again.

End: Click this icon to end the FaceTime call.

Full-screen: Click the full-screen icon (or press +Shift+F) to switch FaceTime into full-screen display mode. To return to windowed mode, press +Shift+F again, or move your mouse and click the full-screen icon again.

To switch FaceTime into landscape mode and take advantage of your Mac’s widescreen display, choose click Video⇒Use Landscape, or press +R. (Why let the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad owners have all the landscape fun?)