Now that Input Director is up and running and configured on your master
system and your slave system you can start using it:
Assuming you had configured your slave as being to the right of your
master system (go back and look here if you're
not sure what side you've configured your slave on) then using your mouse you
should be able to move your cursor to the right so that it goes beyond the
right-side of the screen, it should disappear and re-appear on your slave
screen. Anything you now type will be sent to the slave system. To switch
back to the master system, simply reverse the process and move the cursor to
the left side of slave screen and keep going until it re-appears on the
master system.
If you set a hotkey for the slave, you can try that by hitting your hotkey
combination. The cursor should appear in the center of the slave screen and
you'll find that your mouse and keyboard input is now being redirected to the
slave system.
If you start an application on the slave system and the system gets stuck
and you need to return control to the master system, the default hotkey is
left ctrl + left alt + control-break (control-break is the key marked
pause/break to the right of the scroll-lock key on a standard keyboard). You
can change this hotkey from the Main Input Director panel:
If things get really stuck, you can do a ctrl-alt-delete to regain control
of input (on either master or slave systems).
If you click the X (cross) button in the upper-right-hand corner of the
Input Director window, the window will be closed, but Input Director doesn't
actually quit. The "ID" icon will remain on the Window notification status
bar. This lets you do your work using Input Director without it being
obtrusive and cluttering your screen or task bar.
You need to take sensible precautions in securing your system, especially
if your systems have connectivity to untrusted networks (such as the
Internet). It is highly recommended that you have at least one firewall in
place (perhaps on your router/modem) or software firewalls protecting your
systems. If you are concerned about how secure your systems are, ask a
knowledgeable friend for help. You should also have a look at this question in the faq on securing Input Director.
There are some limitations surrounding the shared clipboard, particularly
when copy/pasting files between machines. Its worthwhile having a look at the
clipboard question/answers in the faq if
you're going to be using the shared clipboard functionality.
2. Preferences
2.1 Global Preferences
On installation Input Director will be configured so that it is
automatically started when you turn on your system. By default, it will start
up in "disabled" mode rather than as a Master or Slave. To change this open
the Input Director window and switch to the Global Preferences tab, you will
see:
Startup -
If you don't want Input Director to be automatically started by Windows
when you login, uncheck the "Run Input Director on Startup" box.
To have Input Director automatically switch into slave or master mode when
it is started, choose the appropriate radio button next to "On start:".
Background Slave Mode - Setting this checkbox allows a slave
to be controlled prior to login and when the Input Director application isn't running. For example, you can use this to fast user switch to a different account
and control it; or log onto your slave using a user account that does not automatically start the Input Director application. Note: To use the remote clipboard or play a macro on a slave, the Input Director application must be running at the time.
Shared Clipboard - Check the "Shared Clipboard" box for this system to share clipboards with all participating slaves and the master.
Clipboard file copy/pastes require that the files being copied are available via a Windows network shared directory and that the security has been setup such that the user logged in on the destination machine doing the copying can access the files.
A file to be copied doesn't need to have its immediate directory shared. For example, a file called "mydoc.txt" located in C:\Documents\Biz\, could have the "Biz" directory setup as a shared folder, or the "Documents" or even the C: drive's root folder, as long
as the user on the other machine doing the pasting has appropriate access. When files are copied to the Input Director shared clipboard, Input Director looks through the list of shared directories on the system with the files and assesses which ones are available via network shared directories.
If given a choice of shared directory, it will always pick the most immediate to the file. For example - if C:\Document\Biz has been shared as well as C:\Document, then C:\Document\Biz will be picked as this is the most immediate (closest) directory to the location of the file.
Under global preferences, there is an option to exclude "C$, D$ shares". These are Windows administrator shares that are setup by Windows and by default have very limited access. Because the access is so limited, checking this option will cause Input Director to
ignore them when considering whether a file is available in a shared directory. If you did want to setup shares for for whole C: or D: drive, you are best of creating a new read-only share on the root directory and setting appropriate security permissions.
Preferred Network Interface - If your system has multiple network connections (For example, it is connected via ethernet to a LAN and it also
has a modem connected to it, or it is wireless and also is connected to a network via ethernet) this setting allows you to choose a preferred network interface when
communicating with slaves and masters. This choice is a preference in that, as an example, if on a master you have set your ethernet connection as the
preferred interface, but the slave its trying to communicate with is only available via wireless, then the preference is ignored. This is an advanced option and should only be
set if there are communication problems and the master and/or slaves are not able to connect to each other or the remote clipboard isn't working (e.g
the clipboard is only working one direction but not the other).
Other options -
When switching to a system (master or slave) via a hotkey the cursor is centered by default. You can choose not to have the cursor
centered when you switch away from and then back to the system using hotkeys. Note: With this option on, the cursor will still be centered
if you use your mouse to transition away from the system and a hotkey to switch back.
If you find the visual transition effect annoying you can switch it off
for this system by unchecking the Cursor "Water Ripple" effect box.
2.2 Slave Preferences
The Slave Preferences are located in the bottom third of the 'Slave Configuration' tab:
These 4 settings are only active when Input Director is in slave mode:
A Master can request to all slaves that they shutdown (This is initiated on the Master via the "Shutdown Slave Workstations" button on the Main panel or via the "ID" icon's context-menu).
Each slave can be set as to how to respond to this request. Up to 4 alternatives are provided: Do Nothing, Stand By, Hibernate and Shutdown. Only those choices that are valid on a particular system are shown.
Synchronise locking this slave system with the Master - If the Master
system has the input focus and the Windows-L command is hit, the Master
system will be locked. Any slave that has this checkbox selected will be
locked at the same time.
Synchronise the screensaver with the Master System - a slave's screensaver
will be switched on and off in lockstep with the Master's. Note: There can be 30 second gap between the master's screensaver activating and a slave's.
Hide the cursor when switching away from this slave - With this checkbox
selected, the cursor will be hidden when transitioning away from the
slave. It can be made to reappear by transitioning back to it or by moving
the locally attached mouse. Also, it will reappear after 30 minutes of
inactivity on the slave.
2.3 Master Preferences
On your Master system, start Input Director and switch to the the "Master Preferences" tab:
Master specific preferences that can be set are:
You can set a "held" key or keys that must be down for a screen-edge
transition to occur (That is, being able to move the cursor off the
screen to the right or left and have it appear or another system). This
is useful if you find that you cursor keeps slipping between systems when
you don't intend it. A good choice for this is the shift key (which means
that the shift key must be held down whilst moving the cursor off the
screen on the master and the slaves to cause it to switch to the another
system).
Ctrl-Alt-Delete equivalent - If a slave system has input focus and you
wish to do the equivalent of ctrl-alt-delete, a different key combination
is necessary (as typing ctrl-alt-delete will always occur on the Master
system even when input is with a slave). The default hotkey is
ctrl-alt-insert. This key combination will also work on the Master
system.
It is sometimes desirable not to allow screen-edge transitions (that is, have the cursor slip of the side of the monitor on one system
to another). Toggling screen-edge transitions on and off can be achieved by right-clicking on the "ID" icon on the system in question and selecting
the "No screen-edge transitions" menu item. You can also setup hotkeys from here to achieve the same result. When using the hotkeys it will
allow/stop screen-edge transitions on the system that is currently being directed (master or a slave).
Hotkeys can be set up jump left, right, up and down from one system to another.
Number of times per second to update a slave - This determines the frequency
that the Master system sends input information (mouse gestures, keys hit,
etc) to a slave. The default is 100 times per second which should give
the mouse/keyboard a similar feel to the local devices when controlling a
slave. If your systems are connected over slower links and you are having
problems then you may find decreasing the number of updates helpful. Keep
in mind that the lower this number the more jerky the input will be on a
slave.
By default, the Master's keyboard caps lock, scroll lock and numlock reflect the system currently being controlled. To switch this feature off, uncheck
the "Master Keyboard LEDs reflect the status of the directed slave" option
Use this system's mouse preferences - When controlling a slave, by default, the mouse speed set on the slave's computer is used. By
selecting this option, the master's Windows mouse settings are used when controlling slaves.
An Input Director Master communicates in the background with slaves on a regular basis (e.g. to switch the screensaver off/on, to update a slave's information window, etc).
If it cannot resolve the slave's hostname it will automatically mark it as being unavailable. If you do not wish Input Director to mark slaves as unavailable as
part of its background activities then check the "Do not automatically update a slave's unavailability status" option.
3. Skipping Slaves
As part of the Master Configuration, a slave can be temporarily marked as
one that should be "skipped" when transitioning between systems. For example:
In the screenshoot above the slave "jane" is positioned between bob and
the Master system but has its Skip flag checked. When moving the cursor
between the Master System and the remaining slave, Input Director will treat
the "jane" system as if it doesn't exist. A slave's skip flag setting is
temporary and not remembered between restarting Input Director or rebooting
the Windows system.
You can quickly unskip a slave by using its hotkey to switch over to it.
If the switch is successful, the slave's skip flag will be cleared.
To learn more about slave skipping, have a look here in the FAQ.
4. Information Window
The master and slave systems can display an Information Window, which
indicates Input Director's status and which system currently has the input
focus. To control the information window, switch to the "Global Preferences"
tab. There is a "Show" push button which can be selected and deselected, and
a "Reset" button to reset the Information window back to its defaults.
Press the "Show" button and the Information Window will pop-up in the
bottom-right hand corner of the screen:
If the window doesn't pop-up, make sure that Input Director is enabled
as a Slave or a Master. By default, if Input Director is disabled the window
will remain hidden.
When input switches from one system to another, all Input Director's
displaying the information window will be updated. For example:
The information window can be resized by positioning the cursor on the
edge of the window (the cursor will change to a double-headed arrow), holding
down the mouse button and dragging the mouse. The contents will be scaled
accordingly.
The window can can re-positioned by putting the mouse anywhere in its
center and then holding down the mouse button. The cursor will change to a
four-headed arrow and the window can be moved to a different location.
The preferences for the Information Window are found in its context menu.
To open this menu, right-click on the information window:
From here you can make the window more or less transparent, uncheck the
"Hide if Input Director disabled" flag so that the window is always visible,
or uncheck the "Always on Top" flag so that other windows can obscure it.
If you select "Hide window" and you change your mind, you'll need to
return to the Global Preferences tab in Input Director and re-press the
Information Window's "Show" button to redisplay it.
"Make input pass-thru this window" means that once
enabled, any clicks on the information window will pass through it to any
window or the desktop below it as if the Information Window isn't there. This
means that once you have enabled this option you cannot resize,
reposition, change the transparency of the Information Window, as you will
not be able to right-click on it to bring up the context menu. To be able to
change it again you must bring up the Global Preferences tab in Input
Director and click the Information Window "Reset" button.
The idea behind the "Make input pass-thru this window" is that once you
have sized and positioned the Information Window, this option can be selected
and then it will not interfere with the control of other windows, icons on
the desktop, etc even if it is overlaid on top of them:
5. Pop-up Context Menu
If you right-click on the "ID" icon on the notification status bar, you
will be presented with a shortcut menu that lets you disable/enable Input
Director, shutdown it down, etc:
On the Master system, the option "Shutdown Slaves and the Master" provides a shortcut to turning all the systems off.
(A slave must have its "Shutdown this slave if directed to by the Master" option selected). Click here
to see more information about this slave setting. The "Lock Slaves and Master" operates similarly.
If Input Director is hidden, you can double-click with the left
mouse-button on the "ID" icon to display the Input Director window.
6. Keyboard Macros
Input Director has the ability to record and playback keyboard macros. A
keyboard macro is a stored sequence of keystrokes that can be played back
whenever triggered. In the case of Input Director, a macro has a hotkey
assigned to it and this is used to trigger the playback. Macros can be played
back to the system which currently has input focus, only to slaves or the
master system, to a specific slave, or to all the systems.
Macros are managed by the Input Director application on the master system.
Its from here that the recording of macros, the playback and their
configuration are handled.
The Input Director macro system is not designed to be a fully-fledged
Windows based macro solution (there are many alternatives available, which
can be found via your favourite search engine). Rather, it provides a
mechanism to record keystrokes (nb: mouse movements/button clicks are not
recorded) and play them back to a master or over the network to a slave
system. (Nb: If you have 3rd-party Macro automation software installed, it
may be possible to record an Input Director macro to playback a
keystroke/sequence that is a trigger to activate one of the automation
software's macros).
Macros have many uses. For example, you can record a macro to startup an
application (by recording a key sequence that opens the Windows Run dialog
box by hitting the Win-R key combination and then typing in the name of an
application to run) or controlling the audio volume (this can be handy if
your speakers are attached to one of your slave systems as you can take
advantage of recording macros that are then bound to that specific slave),
etc. In fact, most things that can be entered via the keyboard can be
recorded as macro.
To learn more about using Input Director macros have a look at the Q&A on Macros in the FAQ.
Where to from here?
If you have further questions about Input Director, the next port of call
is the FAQ or you can contact the author.
