HOWTO | acc ess yo ur Mac using Remot er VNC

1

Turn on Screen Sharing

On your Mac, open System Preferences and click the Sharing icon. Put a check mark in the box next to Screen Sharing. Click on that item, then click the button labelled Computer Settings. In the pane that opens, put a check mark next to ‘VNC viewers may control screen with password’, and then click in the adjacent box and enter a password, which you will need in the following steps. This ensures nobody else can control your Mac. If you plan to give this password to someone else for some reason, make it different to the one you use to log in to your user account on your Mac, so that you don’t also give them physical access to it.

2

Set up Remoter VNC

Download Remoter from the App Store on your iPad or iPhone, and make sure the device is on the same wireless network as the Mac you will be controlling remotely. Click on the + icon at the top-left corner of the screen and you will be shown a list of available computers on your network. You should see your Mac appear, using the name that‘s set at the top of its Sharing preferences pane. You are looking for the VNC icon which will look different to machines using other protocols to broadcast their identities. Tap on the name of your Mac, then tap Add to provide settings necessary to establish a connection.

3

Provide login details

The app should have detected that you want to use the VNC protocol to connect, but if it hasn’t got this right you can correct it by tapping on the Server Type item and selecting VNC ScreenSharing. Next, move down to the username and password fields, which are necessary to successfully connect to the Mac. Next to VNC Username, enter the administrator account name you use on the Mac, and for VNC Password enter the password you set in step 1. When these details are filled in, tap Save. You will be returned to the main screen. A similar procedure applies even if you are using a protocol other than VNC to connect.

4

Connect to your Mac

Tap on your Mac on Remoter VNC’s main screen, and then tap Start. The app will connect over your Wi-Fi network and give you remote control of the Mac as if you were sitting in front of that computer. You can spread two fingers apart on the iPad’s screen to zoom into the Mac’s desktop, and then pinch them together to zoom out again, just like in many iOS apps. Tapping on the iPad’s screen will move the Mac’s pointer to wherever you tapped. Tapping on items on the screen has the same effect as clicking on them with a mouse or trackpad. There’s a full-screen mode option at the top-left corner of Remoter VNC, if you wish to use it.

5

Control the pointer

Tap on the trackpad icon at the bottomright corner of Remoter VNC to open its virtual trackpad. The larger area on it is used to move the pointer, just like moving a mouse around or dragging your finger around on a trackpad’s surface. The smaller strip on the virtual trackpad’s right side controls vertical scrolling. This works in any document or window where scrolling is possible, such as websites or Pages documents. Actions you set up for the trackpad on the Mac are also translated. For example, a two-finger tap on the virtual trackpad opens a contextual menu in certain places, just like it would if you did it on a Mac’s trackpad.

6

Use the keyboard

You can call up a virtual keyboard to type as if you were sitting in front of your Mac. For this to work you first need your Mac to be focussed on something where it’s possible to enter text, such as a Pages document, Safari‘s Smart Search field, or Spotlight. Tap to focus on an area such as these, then tap the keyboard icon at the bottom-right corner of Remoter VNC. A small, temporary text field above the virtual keyboard shows you a preview of what you’ve typed. Confirm it’s correct, then press the Return key to send the text to your Mac. If you’ve typed something in Safari’s Smart Search field, press Return again to search or go to the address.