As both a Mac and PC user, I need a way to quickly jump between both systems on my monitor which has multiple inputs. Since Multiplicity still hasn’t crossed the pond, I’m left with limited options.

Enter Synergy - A system to share your keyboard, mouse, and clipboard between multiple computers.

Synergy is a great tool, but isn’t the most user friendly when it comes to configuration.

1.  section: screens
2.    applecomputer.local:
3.    windowsxp-e2m9su4nlc:
4.  end
5.
6.  section: links
7.    applecomputer.local:
8.     left = windowsxp-e2m9su4nlc
9.    windowsxp-e2m9su4nlc:
10.    right = applecomputer.local
11. end
12.
13. section: options
14.    relativeMouseMoves = true
15.    keystroke(control+f1) = ; lockCursorToScreen(toggle)
16. end

Above is my configuration file for Synergy (computer names changed to protect the innocent). It’s fairly simple. The top section (section: screens) identifies the computers in our setup (lines 2 and 3). We have both an Apple Mac and Windows XP computer.

The next section (section: links) tells us how the two screens link together. Line 7 tells us the computer name and line 8 tells Synergy that when our mouse hits the left side of the screen, jump over to the Windows XP machine. Lines 9 and 10 tell Synergy that moving the mouse to the right side of the screen on our Windows XP computer will take us back to our Mac.

Lines 1 through 11 is all you really need to get it working. You could leave it with those lines and be content with the functionality. At least until you try and play certain full screen games.

You see, some PC games move you around the level based on the acceleration of the mouse and the direction it is accelerating in. While using Synergy, your mouse is told what X and Y coordinates it should be at on your screen. This really messes up games such as Half Life 2. You will literally find your character in a spasm of sorts.

To fix such an annoying issue, you have to tell Synergy to lock down the mouse. What this lock down will do is both prevent the mouse from exiting to your Mac screen and enable relative moves (the acceleration we were talking about earlier). To do this, we have to add a new section (section: options) and tell it to enable relative moving (line 14) and assign a hotkey to enable or disable this (line 15). In the example above, I am using CTRL+F1. If you are using a Mac as your Synergy server, you will most likely have to use CTRL+FN+F1 to activate the hotkey, as F1 on my keyboard is brightness control which is overridden by the FN key.

With this basic setup you are ready to have the best of both worlds. Well, maybe.

You see, Synergy is not without faults. Quite often I will be in Windows XP playing a full screen game with my mouse locked down to that screen when my Mac will pop up an alert that requires my input (such as a firewall request). When this happens, Synergy likes to give keyboard control back to the Mac — essentially creating a really hard time to get keyboard control back to the Windows XP computer. The only solutions I have found so far is exiting my PC game with the mouse and closing Synergy’s tray icon or unplugging the network cable on either of the computers, thus disrupting the Synergy connection between the two.

Even with it’s faults, it is still one of the only options for cross-platform control without opening the second computer in a VNC connection of some sort. It is also decently feature filled as well. If you have a chance, check out the configuration guide on Synergy.