Apple ARD31 manual Screen Sharing and Text Messaging, Multi-Observe Window, Guest Access

Technology Overview 27

Apple Remote Desktop 3

New in Apple Remote Desktop 3 are system status indicators (SSIs) that provide at-a-glance information about the computers in your network. Under each screen, you’ll see the name of the computer, the name of the current user, and the user’s account picture. Red, yellow, and green indicators show the status of the computer. (Users who are color-blind can choose shapes to indicate status.) Click the indicator light to get details on available disk space, memory utilization, and CPU utilization.

Multi-Observe Window

2 3 4

1

5

1Remote screens. View multiple remote screens in a single window. Screens can be those of any Mac OS X or VNC- enabled computers. Your screen updates in real time.

2Page forward and backward. When you are observing more computers than are visible in one window, use the arrows to page forward and backward between groups of screens.

3Perform tasks. Select a screen to perform a task on the corresponding computer. For instance, you can select a screen and initiate a full-control session—or select all screens and copy files to all those computers.

4View options. Adjust the number of screens that are visible in the window, from one computer to up to 50. Adjust the observation time when you have more computers selected than are visible. Adjust the color depth of the viewed screens using one of four modes: millions of colors, thousands of colors, grayscale, or black and white. Specify an optional caption to be displayed under each screen: name, IP address, host name, and computer status.

5Scale window. Scale the window to the size you like. Individual screens automatically scale to fit.

Guest Access

The Guest Access option allows computer users to accept or refuse an administrator’s request to control or observe their systems— and can be enabled or disabled based on the policies of your organization.

Screen Sharing and Text Messaging

Apple Remote Desktop 3 enables you to select one or multiple Mac screens and share them with other Mac OS X systems. This feature is useful for demonstrating specific tasks or for training a group of computer users.

Two-way text messaging allows you to broadcast text messages to one or more Mac OS X systems or to initiate private, real-time computer-to-computer text chat. With text messaging enabled, client users can also initiate text communications to request assistance from their administrator or help desk.