Desktop Transporter Help
Copyright (c) 2004
-2006 Yellow Lemon Software, all rights reserved.

Connecting to shared displays
Connecting to a shared display is as simple as double-clicking it in the list of shared displays, visible in the Desktops tab in Desktop Transporter’s main window. If the other Mac has previews enabled, you should see a preview of the remote desktop in the list as well, otherwise you will merely see a black square with a number on it. The number indicates which remote display you are seeing a preview of. (Note that if the other Mac has more than one shared display, you will only see a preview of one of the displays.) The Desktops tab looks like this:

Screenshot of Desktops tab

To connect to the selected desktop, simply press the Connect to desktop... button, or double-click the Mac's entry in the list of shared displays. You can also single-click on the preview image. A new window will appear, containing small buttons representing the shared displays on the remote machine. (Note that if Desktop Transporter appears to become unresponsive when you select a Macintosh in the list, it is likely that you are running into firewall problems. Please see the Troubleshooting section for more information.)

If you don’t see the computer you wish to connect to in the list, you can specify it by selecting Connect to shared desktop... from the Desktop menu or pressing Command-K. This will bring up a dialog allowing you to specify the address and port of the remote desktop (it is usually OK to leave the port as-is).

After connecting, a window similar to this will pop up:

Window after connecting


This is what the window will look like before you attempt to connect to one of the displays on the remote Macintosh. Below to the left is a status bar, containing information on the connection status, number of shared displays and a miniature version of the displays on the remote Macintosh. When you connect to the remote display, a scrolling area will appear between the status area and the buttons, containing a miniature version of the desktop you are currently interacting with, as shown in the screenshot below. The black rectangle marks the visible area - you can drag this box around to scroll the visible area of the remote desktop.

Window after clicking connect button

Selecting Scale to fit will make the desktop fit within the window. When Only observe is checked, you will not be able to interact with the remote desktop. Unchecking it will allow you to move remote windows, enter text, use your scroll wheel (if your mouse has one) and perform other common actions.

Note that command-key equivalents are only enabled when you are running the remote desktop in fullscreen mode, and even then some special keys, like Command-Tab, will be sent to the local computer, not the remote display. Also note that you will not see the remote cursor move unless you are working in fullscreen mode.

In some cases the Only observe checkbox will be disabled. In these cases, the reason is either that you are looking at your own, shared display (in which case it wouldn't make sense to interact anyway), or the remote party has unchecked the "Allow others to interact" checkbox under her Sharing tab.

To enter fullscreen mode, simply click the Enter fullscreen button, or select Enter fullscreen from the Desktop menu. You will be presented with a dialog box informing you on how to exit fullscreen mode -- this is accomplished by typing Command-Control-F. Depending on the resolution of your current display, and the resolution of the remote display, the remote desktop may be scaled down in order to fit your current resolution.  If your display is running at a resolution larger than the remote display, no scaling will take place. You can select the display on which Desktop Transporter shows the remote desktop in fullscreen by moving the desktop window to the display which you want to use.

In cases where the remote desktop becomes unavailable, or when you disconnect from it by clicking on the radiating button in the desktop window, the remote desktop will appear greyed out. Finally, clicking the green Zoom button in the window's title bar will cause the window to reduce to a small, scaled overview of the remote display. (You can still manipulate the remote desktop while in this zoomed state.)

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