The Lync 2013 client is broken into a few sections, as shown in Figure 1,
starting with the user’s personal area at the very top. This is where a
user can enter a status update in the What’s Happening Today? field,
change his presence, or define a location they are currently working
from.
Figure 1. The Lync 2013 client interface.
The next section of the client is a tabbed
navigation area that enables the user to jump between her contact list,
Persistent Chat rooms, conversation history, and telephony features.
Continuing toward the bottom is a search
field where users can enter names or phone numbers when trying to
locate a contact. This search happens across the user’s Lync contact
list and personal Outlook contacts by default.
The main area of the client is next. It
displays content for each of the tabbed areas discussed previously, so
it will switch between the user’s contact list, Persistent Chat rooms,
previous conversations, and telephony features.
The final area of the client is
displayed at the very bottom and enables the user to easily switch a
preferred audio device or manage his call forwarding settings.
Configuring Basic Options
You can reach the personal options by
clicking on the gear icon at the far right of the navigation tabs. In
the Options windows, the options are broken up into multiple
categories. These categories are organized in the left pane for easy
access and include the following:
• General—This is
where users can turn on or off emoticons, modify background colors for
messages, turn logging on or off, and configure tabbed conversations.
• Personal—This is
where users can alter their logon information, determine Lync’s startup
behavior, opt to integrate presence information with Exchange or
Outlook, configure Lync conversation archiving to Outlook, and opt to
show photos for contacts.
• Contacts List—This is where users can adjust how contacts are displayed, how they are ordered, and how much information is shown.
• Status—This section contains options for how presence is automatically updated and viewable.
• My Picture—This is where users can determine whether to present a photo with their contact information.
• Phones—This
is where users can modify phone number information, as well as opt to
integrate Lync client with the phone system, enable functions such as
TTY, or configure behavior for joining conference calls.
• Alerts—This is where
users can choose to be notified if someone else adds them to the
contact list or to configure the behavior of their Do Not Disturb
status.
• Persistent Chat—This is where users can customize alerts and sounds for Persistent Chat rooms.
• Ringtones and Sounds—This is where the user can choose the incoming-call ringtone or configure sounds on specific events.
• Audio Device—This is
where users can choose which audio devices will be used by the Lync
client. They can also change the volume associated with the speakers
and ringer, as well as modify the microphone sensitivity. These
settings are useful for optimizing the user experience. When adjusting
the microphone, simply slide the bar all the way to the right and then
speak into the microphone a bit louder than normal. If the resulting
signal is deemed too high, the slider automatically moves left after
you finish speaking.
• Video Device—This is
where users can choose the video source and access that device’s
settings. These settings include exposure, focus, brightness, contrast,
hue, sharpness, gamma, and backlight compensation. The user can also
access advanced and extended settings to include zoom, white balance,
and even face tracking, if the device supports it.
• Call Forwarding—This
is where users can view and change call forwarding, simultaneous ring,
and voice mail settings. Team-call group and delegate members can also
be defined on this screen.
• File Saving—This is where users determine where file transfers and Lync recordings will be saved.
