Using VNC^® Viewer for iOS

Once connected, you can perform the operations explained in the table below.

Note your finger moves the mouse cursor rather than pans the screen, as in Safari. This means you can tap anywhere to perform an operation where the cursor is positioned - you don't have to tap precisely. Note the cursor is offset from under your finger so you can always see it.

To	Gesture
Navigate the desktop	Move a finger in the direction you want to pan. More...
Zoom in	Pinch fingers apart. More...
Zoom out	Pinch fingers together. More...
Move the mouse cursor	Place one finger on the screen and drag. More...
Click the left mouse button	Tap the screen. More...
Double-click the left mouse button	Double-tap the screen. More...
Click the right mouse button	Tap two fingers on the screen. More...
Click the middle mouse button	Tap three fingers on the screen.
Scroll the mouse wheel	Place two fingers on the screen and slowly drag up or down. More...
Drag an object or select text	Double-tap the screen, hold the second tap, and drag. More...
For even more precise control, try mouse button mode.
Transfer text to/from iPhone	Copy and paste in the expected way for the computer and device. More...
Enter text	Tap to bring up the on-screen keyboard. More...
Press Del, Esc, Tab or Cursor keys	Tap and then the appropriate button. More...
Hold down Alt, Shift, Ctrl, Win or Cmd key	Tap or and then the appropriate button once to emulate holding the key down. More...
Send Ctrl-Alt-Del command	Tap and

Navigating the desktop

Move a finger up and down or from side to side to move the mouse cursor in the direction you want to pan. The desktop automatically scrolls as the cursor nears an edge.

Zooming the desktop

Pinch fingers apart to zoom in and see more detail. Pinch fingers together to zoom out and see more desktop. Note you cannot double-tap to zoom fully out as you can a web page in Safari.

Using gestures

A gesture is a finger movement (one or more) that emulates a mouse operation in a touchscreen environment. As an alternative, you can use mouse button mode.

Place a finger on the screen and drag to move the mouse cursor. The cursor is offset from under your finger so you can always see it. Note all operations are performed where the cursor is positioned, not your finger.

Tap the screen to click the left mouse button once. Depending on the position of the cursor, an operation might be performed, such as pressing a dialog button or giving an application focus.

Double-tap the screen to click the left mouse button twice. Depending on the position of the cursor, an operation might be performed, such as starting an application or selecting a line or word of text.

Tap two fingers on the screen simultaneously to click the right mouse button. Depending on the position of the cursor, a shortcut menu might open.

Place two fingers on the screen in an application window and move both up or down to scroll the window. You may need to experiment with the distance between fingers to find the spacing that gives you the best result.

Double-tap the screen, hold the second tap, and move your finger to drag a desktop object such as a dialog or icon, or select a body of text. Note that the cursor must be appropriately positioned for this operation to succeed, for example on the title bar of a dialog.

Using mouse button mode

In mouse button mode, virtual mouse buttons and an imaginary scroll wheel are superimposed on your view of the desktop (see the explanation in the picture below). This gives you even more precise control over operations.

To enter mouse button mode, tap . To quit, tap the same button again. Note you can still move the mouse cursor around the desktop using your finger in the standard way.

Entering text

You can use the on-screen keyboard to enter text in a suitable application or field.

Tap to bring up the on-screen keyboard. You can enter any available character (that is, lower case and upper case letters, numbers, and a wide range of symbols) and, in addition, emulate the computer Backspace, Spacebar, and Enter keys. You cannot, however, enter characters that are not available on the on-screen keyboard. See how to enter international characters. Note that text you type is previewed above the keyboard.

To dismiss the keyboard, tap (to the right of the cursor keys).

Performing keyboard operations

A computer keyboard has numerous 'extended' keys that perform useful operations. For example, holding down the Alt key and pressing Tab on a PC keyboard cycles through all the open applications.

VNC Viewer provides special buttons to emulate important extended keys. You can:

• Press the Del, Esc, Tab, and cursor keys.

To do this, tap to bring up the on-screen keyboard and tap an appropriate button.

• Hold down the Alt, Shift, Ctrl, and Win (PC keyboard) or Cmd (Mac keyboard) keys.

To do this, tap either or (these buttons are available in both modes). Tap a button once to emulate holding an extended key down; the button is backlit . You can now move the mouse, or press another button or an on-screen keyboard key, to perform a particular operation. For example, tapping the button (to emulate holding down the Ctrl key) and then on the on-screen keyboard copies the current selection to the computer's Clipboard.

Note: These buttons auto-release once the operation has been performed.

Transferring text

You can copy text from your computer and paste it to a suitable application on your iPhone or iPod touch, such as Mail or Safari, and vice versa.

To transfer text from computer to iPhone or iPod touch, use VNC Viewer to select and copy text in the expected way for the computer, for example by emulating the Ctrl-C key combination. Close VNC Viewer (you will be disconnected), open the appropriate application, and paste text in the expected way for iPhone or iPod touch.

To transfer text from iPhone or iPod touch to computer, open an appropriate application, and select and copy text in the expected way for iPhone or iPod touch. Close the application, open VNC Viewer, connect to a computer, and paste text in the expected way for its operating system, for example by emulating the Ctrl-V key combination.

Tweaking performance

You can trade picture quality for speed and vice versa while the connection is in progress.

To do this, tap to bring up the information screen, and select Quality. You can either choose to make the connection faster but see potentially less detail, or have full color at a potential cost in speed.

If you retain the default Automatic option, VNC Viewer optimizes performance automatically according to the speed of your network.

Viewing connection information

Tap to bring up information about the current connection.

Note the padlock symbol in the picture above is closed. This means that the current connection is encrypted. If the padlock is open then the current connection is not encrypted but future connections can be. You will need to turn encryption on for VNC Server, and then reconnect. See the VNC Enterprise Edition User Guide for more information.

If the padlock is struck out then the connection cannot be encrypted. You will need to upgrade your computer to VNC Enterprise Edition or VNC Personal Edition in order to encrypt connections.

Entering international characters

You can enter international characters providing:

• They are not from pictographic scripts (such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean).
• The computer you want to control is running VNC Enterprise Edition or VNC Personal Edition 4.5 or later.
• The operating system of the computer supports the language in which you want to type. Under Mac OS X, it must also be the currently-selected language.

To enter international characters, add the appropriate keyboard(s) to your iPhone or iPod touch before you connect (Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards). You can switch between multiple keyboards while typing using the on-screen keyboard key.

Closing the connection

Tap to close the connection.

For your security, the connection is also closed automatically if you press the device's Home button.