Synergy is My Favorite Productivity Tool

Cost: Free

So the other day I stumbled across a cool program called Synergy. Basically what Synergy does is allow you to use one set of keyboard and mouse on multiple computers. This is particularly useful because the current setup I have is terrible for multi-tasking.

Current setup

Custom PC
19″ monitor for PC
13″ Macbook

Now as you can tell by the lack of screen real estate I have, productive multi-tasking was out of the question. Now you might be saying, “Is it possible to use it across platforms?” Yes. So this means I can now use my main computer’s keyboard and mouse on both the PC and the Macbook.

Setup

Setup did get a little complicated, but with the help of a couple Lifehacker tutorials, I managed to figure it out. The hardest part was the difference in the user interface of the Windws and Mac software as they use two completely different programs. After messing with the different Names, Ports, IP addresses and adding and positioning the computers, I managed to get it working. I would put total setup time for me at about 30 minutes.

Quality

This program actually works extremely well for running through a network. However, I do find that the secondary computer can get a bit glitchy and laggy which can cause a few headaches. But, what can you expect from open-source? It does what it needs to do most of the time without problem.

Now this program is exceptional when you feel limited in multi-tasking ability. It maximises the use of multiple computers while minimizing the hassle of controlling all of them. I can now scroll through my RSS reader on my Macbook and have my Windows Live Writer on the PC at the same time with no problems.

If you are interested in the Synergy project you can download them here:

For Mac click Here.

For Windows click Here.