Using VNC^® Viewer for iOS

When connected to a computer using VNC Viewer, your finger moves the mouse cursor rather than pans the screen, as in Safari. This means you can tap anywhere to perform an operation at the point 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.

» Navigate and zoom

» Perform mouse operations using gestures

» Perform operations in mouse button mode

» Enter text

» Enter international characters

» Perform keyboard operations (ie. Ctrl-Alt-Del)

» Transfer text between computer and device

» Tweak performance

» View connection information

» Disconnect

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.

To	Do this
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...

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 anywhere on 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 anywhere on 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 anywhere 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 anywhere on 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 this button again. Note you can move the mouse cursor around the desktop using your finger in the normal way.

Entering text

To enter text in a suitable application or field, you can either use:

• The on-screen virtual keyboard.
• A docked or paired hardware keyboard.

Tap to enter text entry mode. Note that if a hardware keyboard is detected, the virtual keyboard is not displayed.

You can enter any available character. Text you type is displayed in the preview bar. To obscure text (perhaps a password), tap to the right of the text preview. To quit text entry mode, tap .

Note: In this release, you cannot use the following hardware keyboard keys: Control, Alt, Command, the Function keys, the Cursor keys. Use the scrolling key bar instead. We are working with Apple to resolve this issue.

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 access international characters, add the appropriate keyboard(s) to your device before you connect (Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards). You can switch between multiple keyboards while typing using the virtual keyboard key.

Performing keyboard operations

Computer keyboards have numerous non-character keys that, when pressed, and sometimes in combination, perform useful operations. For example, holding down the Control and Alt keys and pressing Delete enables you to reboot a Windows computer.

VNC Viewer has a scrolling key bar containing buttons representing the following keys:

• Function keys (F1 through F12).
• Modifier keys (Shift, Control, Alt, and Windows (PC keyboard)/Command (Mac keyboard)).
• Navigation keys (Cursor keys, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End).
• Editing keys (Delete, Insert, Tab).
• Miscellaneous keys such as Escape and Enter.

Note that some other keys (such as Backspace and Space bar) can be accessed from a keyboard. Other keys (such as Print Screen and Num Lock) are not available.

To open the scrolling key bar, tap either or . To see more buttons, scroll the bar to the left.

Note that:

• The Page Up and Page Down buttons are distinguished thus from the Home and End buttons.
• The Enter key is represented by the button.
• The Windows and Command keys share the same button.
• You can tap a modifier button (Shift, Control, Alt, Windows/Command) once to emulate holding that key down for the next key press only. The button turns grey and, in text entry mode, an operation symbol appears to the left of the text preview.

For example, you might tap the button (to emulate holding down the Control key) and then on the virtual keyboard to copy the current selection to the computer's Clipboard. The button automatically releases once the operation has been performed.

• You can tap a modifier button twice in quick succession to emulate holding that key down permanently. The button turns blue . Tap again to release it.

Transfering 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 device, use VNC Viewer to select and copy text in the expected way for the computer, for example by emulating the Control-C key combination. Close VNC Viewer (you will be disconnected even on multitasking devices), open the appropriate application, and paste text in the expected way for the device.

To transfer text from device to computer, open an appropriate application, and select and copy text in the expected way for the device. 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 Control-V key combination.

Tweaking performance

For connections to computers running VNC Enterprise Edition or VNC Personal Edition, you can trade picture quality for speed and vice versa while the connection is in progress. Note this is not possible for connections to Apple Remote Desktop/Remote Management.

To do this, tap and then Picture Quality. Choose to either 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. This may be useful if you contact Support.

Note that only connections to computers running VNC Enterprise Edition or VNC Personal Edition are encrypted end-to-end (though authentication credentials are always encrypted). Upgrade your computer to this technology if security is important to you.

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 (even for multitasking devices).