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FaceTime Tricks for Your Mac

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2016-03-26 11:14:31
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Switching to a Mac For Dummies
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Through FaceTime, you can gab with and see your friends. FaceTime works from Mac to Mac as well. You need OS X version 10.6.6 or later and an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet. You can do a lot in FaceTime beyond the basics:

  • Change orientation. When you get a call from an iPhone or an iPod touch, the call window on your Mac rotates if the caller changes the orientation of his device. You’re not about to rotate the Mac as you would one of those handheld devices, but you can still change the orientation that the caller sees. Choose FaceTime→Video and then choose either Use Portrait or Use Landscape.

  • Resize the video call window. You can make the video call window bigger by choosing Window→Zoom. Choose the command again to revert to the standard-size window. As with any window, you can expand it by dragging a window edge, and you can go full-screen during a call.

  • Pause a call. If you need to pause a video call, choose FaceTime→Hide FaceTime or Window→Minimize. Click the FaceTime icon on the Dock to resume the call.

  • Add a caller to contacts or favorites. In the Recents list, click the circled right arrow next to a caller’s name or number. In the next screen, click Create New Contact or Add to Existing Contact. Click Add to Favorites to make the caller a favorite, and choose the appropriate phone number to use (if more than one exists).

  • Change Caller ID. You can list any of the e-mail accounts you’re using for FaceTime as the Caller ID account that the people you’re calling will see. To change to a different account, open FaceTime Preferences, click the right-pointing arrow in the field showing your current Caller ID account, and click any of the other accounts you have associated with FaceTime to select one of them.

Open Notifications settings in System Preferences to arrange alerts for FaceTime calls, and to determine whether and how you see FaceTime notifications in Notification Center.

If you’re traveling in another country, you can arrange it so that any local calls made to iPhone users through FaceTime are using the proper native format for making that call. In FaceTime Preferences, click Apple ID, choose Change Location, and select the appropriate country or region.

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About the book author:

Edward C. Baig is a veteran Mac authority and the technology columnist for USA Today.