OS X Daily: “Mac Setups: Husband & Wife Workstation” plus 1 more

Posted: 14 Apr 2012 10:22 AM PDT

Husband and wife Mac desk setup

This weeks Mac setup is loaded with great Apple gear and comes to us from husband and wife Cesare and Monica. Hardware from left to right is:

iPad 1
iPhone 4 64GB
iMac 20″ (early 2008) 4GB RAM 200GB HD
iPad 3rd gen 64GB
iPhone 4S 64GB
MacBook Pro 17″ (mid 2007) 8GB RAM 500GB HD
1988 Apple HQ Mug
MacBook Pro 15″ 8GB RAM 256GB SSD with external display

The printer is a Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 6500 WiFi model (related, you can force other printers to be AirPrint compatible), and not pictured is a MacBook Air 11″ used for travel.

Want your Mac setup featured? Send pictures of Apple & Mac setups to osxdailycom@gmail.com and include some brief hardware details and what you use it for.

How to Share a Single Keyboard & Mouse Between Multiple Macs & Computers

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 11:07 AM PDT

Want to share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple Macs? How about using a keyboard and mouse attached to your Mac to control an additional PC running Windows or Linux, and even being able to share copy and paste data between the different operating systems? You can do that with the help of a great free tool called Synergy, and setting it up is easier than you might think.

Requirements

Mac OS X: Download SynergyKM (free) and install it on all Macs involved
Windows & Linux (Optional): download Synergy client (free) if you wish to share a keyboard and mouse with a PC
Each computer must be on the same local network

Confirm that SynergyKM and Synergy is installed on each computer you wish to share a keyboard and mouse between. Nearly every major operating system is supported, including Mac OS X Snow Leopard, OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion, Windows XP through Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux, Fedora Linux, amongst others, but this walkthrough will cover the setup with SynergyKM from a Mac standpoint. The only difference when connecting a Windows or Linux machine is the respective interface used to setup the connection.

For the purpose of this walkthrough, we’ll define the primary Mac with the attached keyboard and mouse as the “host server” and any connected Macs sharing that keyboard and mouse as a “client”. This is a multiple step setup process, starting with the host server and moving to each client from there.

Share a Single Mouse & Keyboard Between Multiple Macs with SynergyKM

From the Host Server:

Open System Preferences and click the “SynergyKM” control panel
Under “General” choose “Share my keyboard and mouse” and click the “Turn Synergy On” button

Now click the “Server Configuration” tab, this is where you will set up the arrangement and orientation of each computer
Click the [+] button to add computers. First add the host server and name it after the machines network Sharing name (example: MacBookPro), then add more screens as appropriate, naming each after their respective network share names and place them according to their physical layout

SynergyKM Configuration

On the host server machine, confirm that Synergy is turned on from the General tab and then move to the client computers

The host server status should now be waiting for client connections.

From the Client Computers:

Open System Preferences and click the “SynergyKM” control panel
Click on “General” tab and select “Connect to a shared keyboard and mouse”

Client SynergyKM Configuration

Click the “Client Configuration” tab and enter the hostname of the Server (example: MacBookPro), alternatively you can enter the host machines IP address
Go back to the “General” tab and click “Turn Synergy On”

The “Status” shown at the bottom of SynergyKM host and client machines should now say “Connected”.

That’s it! You are now free to drag the mouse cursor between each computer. Keyboard control follows the cursor as does the clipboard. Screen savers will typically sync, as does waking each Mac from a screen saver, though a password must be entered on each individual Mac if a lock screen is used.

It’s very important to name each entry to match the machines network Sharing name. Find the names by clicking on the “Sharing” panel in System Preferences on each Mac, it will be next to “Computer Name”. If you encounter problems with setup or connections, it is almost certainly related to the naming of either the host server or the clients.

If you have an iPad but no extra Mac or PC laying around, you can use the third party app Air Display in a similar manner, though it basically just extends the desktop.

Topmost Mac picture borrowed from a past Mac setups post.

Update: Some users are experiencing issues setting up SynergyKM as a server in OS X Lion. If you are running into problems setting it up you may want to try limiting the Lion machine to a client function rather than a server, and running server either on a PC or another version of Mac OS X.