Using Synergy Video

Using Synergy Video Transcript

>> What's going on, everyone? I'm Jeff Backlar [Assumed spelling] for cnet.com. If you were like me, at home you have a PC and a Mac. But it's crazy to use two sets of keyboards and mice to control both of them. On this Insider's Secret I'm going to show you how to consolidate all of this real estate, use one keyboard, one mouse, for both platforms. ^M00:00:20 [ Music ] ^M00:00:29

>> Everyone knows Macs and PCs have been going at it for years now. But if you're like me, you like the best of both worlds. Well, there's an easy software solution to use the same mouse and keyboard across both platforms without buying any expensive hardware. It's called Synergy, it's free, and we're going to show you right now how to set it up. You can find synergy for Windows by going directly to the source at synergy2.sourceforge.net. Choose the latest release and under Binaries you want to click on version 1.3.1 for Windows. It's the one labelled .exe. And it's been a while since the program has been updated, but hey, it's free. For Mac you can go directly to the development page at sourceforge.net\projects\synergykn. Then click on Download Synergy KN. Now you'll need to set up the software, and while it's not super-easy, it's worth it. Because like we said, it's free. You'll want to know the computer name on the network of both machines you're going to be using. On your Mac go to System Preferences and click on Sharing. In the Mac world the computer name is right where it says Computer Name. For the PC world, your Mac's name is listed where it says Other Computers on Your Local Network Can Access Your Computer At. On your Windows machine go to Control Panel, double-click on system, and then click on the computer name tag. It should be listed right there under full computer name. But here's a trick. Synergy will actually let you rename your computer to something much easier. Now this used to be really hard to set up with a Mac, but thanks to Synergy KN things are a lot easier now. First, install the preference panel. You're probably going to need to enter in your system's password. In Synergy KN under System Preference select Share My Keyboard and Mouse. We're also going to suggest selecting Show Synergy Status in the Menu Bar. Next, tab over to the server configuration. Press the plus sign and enter the name of your Mac. Click the plus sign again and then enter the name of your PC. Now you can rearrange where your PC is relative to where your Mac is by dragging the monitors. You can have them left or right of your Mac and even above or below. This will tell Synergy which side of the screen to exit and enter from, from which computer. Now on the Windows side you're going to do something similar. You can either share your own PC or connect to another PC. The hard part here is sharing your own computer. When you select Share Your Own Keyboard and Mouse under Configure, press the plus sign and enter the names of your respective computers. You can even assign an alias to help you remember. Now here comes the other tricky part. Under links you'll have to tell Synergy where the monitors are respective to one another. So enter left if your Mac is to the left of your PC, and you'll have to enter another link to tell Synergy that your PC is to the right of your Mac. Now it sounds confusing, and it is. But like we said before, it's totally worth it. With a little experimentation you'll get it right -- or left. To use another computer's keyboard on the PC , just select Use Another Computer's Shared Keyboard and Mouse, and enter the full computer name. If you're on a Mac under the General tab, just select Connect to a Shared Keyboard and Mouse. And then under Client Configuration, enter the name of the Windows or the other Mac computer. You should be ready to start sharing a single keyboard and mouse once you've completed this. So there's a lot of other cool things Synergy can -- has to offer. First, you can actually remap the command key to the control key on the Windows side so that you don't have to constantly remember that the Windows world using Control and the Mac world uses the Command button. Also, you can set Synergy to synchronize your screen savers so if one starts on one computer, both will go into screen saver mode at the same time. All right, it might be a little intimidating. It is a little confusing, but like we said, it's free and it's totally worth it. Also, you can cut and paste across platforms. So if I cut something over here from my Windows machine I can drag it right over to my Mac and paste it without any interruption. It's also really good if you have a Windows PC media center at home as well. I'm Jeff Backlar, and this has been an Insider's Secret using Synergy. ^M00:04:56 [ Music ]