I have to do a presentation remotely in a couple of days, by Skype?
However do you Skype? It’s by my computer right? Or my phone?
Assume I know nothing - because I don’t.
Go to Skype. Download it. Install it. Launch it. Good so far?
Now you have to tell us what you want to do. Call another Skype number? Call a landline? Add people to your contact list?
Does it work on a Mac? I can’t download stuff onto my work computer.
You can install Skype on both your computer and your phone.
To Skype with someone, you need to add them to your contacts, or they need to make you their contact. Send them your Skype name, then they will send you a contact request, which you accept. (Or you can do it vice versa.) Once you’ve become contacts, you can Skype them by clicking on the phone icon on the upper right of the screen.
You can also use Skype to call landlines, but that requires setting up a phone account. The account is free, but you pay for your calls (a pretty low rate). You can also obtain a Skype phone number so people can call you by phone on Skype, but that requires a paid account.
Thanks all. I will get to work on it.
How to make a Skype call with all the details.
Aha! I have made Skype-contact with the law professor whose class I will be enlightening tomorrow from a distance!
Now he has to figure out how to link his computer to the big screen at the front of the class, so they aren’t all huddled around his laptop, squinting at me.
Thanks to all for your comments and links.
Isn’t it nice when all the remaining technical problems are at the other end? 
As a note of caution, always start Skype 5 to 10 minutes before on important meetings or presentations. It has a nasty habit of updating and won’t let you cancel.
Does it ever. Most times I call my Mum this happens first, occasionally moving buttons around and confusing us both. Stupid annoying piece of…
Is there an open-source alternative? For video conferencing and presentations, let’s say.
I know. It makes me want to demand my money back. . . . .
The volunteer group I work with is far flung (as in world-wide) and uses Fuze for video (and phone) conferencing. I am dubious it is free as there are no ads or anything intrusove when being used. If there are fees, they were paid by the central organization; while as a user, you have to download a client to join the conference, there is no fee to do so. If you want to dial it in, you call a 201 area code number and enter an 8-digit meeting ID.
Googling free video conferencing comes up with a number of hits, Fuze not among them.
Just because it’s free doesn’t give it a pass on truly annoying or poorly implemented features. I’d happily pay an annual fee for what it provides, but that would still give me no say in improving its features.
It works fine on a Mac. The main thing you should do (whether Mac or Windows) is download it and test it ahead of time, plus make sure all your participants have Skype accounts and you know their Skype names. In general it is very easy to use and works well. In my testing the audio and video quality works better than Google Hangouts.
On the Mac version of Skype there are some missing features (which you may not need). Skype on Mac cannot resize the video thumbnail of your webcam, whereas on Windows you can simply drag the corner to make it larger.
For Logitech cameras, Macs apparently don’t have access to the camera settings such as exposure, gain, brightness, contrast, etc. However most of the time you don’t need those. In Windows this is under Tools>Options>Video Settings>Webcam Settings>Advanced.
There are two different free versions of Skype for Windows: a simpler version bundled with Windows and the stand-alone “classic” version which has more options for user configuration. I definitely prefer the classic version but the bundled version of Skype may already be installed on your Windows machine at work if it is running 8.1 or later. You might not have to install anything.
If you have an encoding camera, ie one with built-in onboard compression, it is unclear what platforms this works on (whether Windows or Mac) or maybe requires Skype for Business. This makes a big difference for older laptops since the camera offloads the CPU-intensive task of encoding. My testing with Skype for Mac ver 7.59 with a Logitech PTZ Pro 2 camera indicates Skype’s UVC 1.5 camera encoding feature does not work on that platform.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cameras_with_onboard_video_compression
List of USB video class devices - Wikipedia
If you want to use external audio inputs (ie a mic) on a Mac, be advised no MacBook since 2012 has had an external 1/8" mic input. Rather there is a single 1/8" “combo” port which is combined mic in and headphone out. This works for the wired Apple earbuds but will not work for any other analog mic without an adapter. The best way is just use an expensive USB adapter like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IRVQ0F8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_j5n-zbWEVTW9T
Argh! My office doesn’t have wi-fi so I can’t use my personal laptop.
My office computer doesn’t have Skype in it and IT needs 5 days’ notice to install it! (Don’t ask…)
Présentation in 1.5 hours…
Can’t you just plug the ethernet cable into your personal laptop?
(I’m clueless too, BTW.)
He can try but from a network security standpoint, I would hope that won’t work. If I were NP, I’d take the rest of the day off and go home or wherever I tested the connection with the professor before.
IT does not like that.