OSX has a nifty program called Screen Sharing. It lets you remotely access other computers, whether they be UNIX, Mac, Linux, Windows, or any other type of box.

All the other box needs is a VNC server, which Macs have built in since 10.4. However, using this app directly is often a pain.

Office 365 is the name of the marketing program where you lease Microsoft Office instead of purchase. So yes, you could install Visio Pro Office in a Windows partition and boot directly to Microsoft Windows using Apple's built-in Boot Camp, or you could run Windows and Mac OS simultaneously using a virtual machine in Parallels (or competing VMWare but I prefer Parallels). The Office 365 program includes Mac and Windows versions of Office.

You have to open it up, create a new session, type in the URL/IP, and then possibly authenticate. If you, like me, are accustomed to using Terminal for most of your tasks, there is an easier and quicker way: use the 'open' command, which is built in to OSX. From a standard shell, run open as in one of these examples: open vnc://www.example.com open vnc://111.111.111.111 open vnc://mylocalserver.local If you often VNC into the same computer, you can create an alias in your shell's profile so you don't have to type the command every time.

I'm not sure which VNC server you have running on your Mac, but you can use the built-in one. Apple menu --> System Preferences --> Sharing --> Screen Sharing. Make sure that its configured for VNC access with a password. Then try to connect to TCP port 5900 with a VNC client on your PC.

Combine this with, and you can open a VNC connection to the server of your choice in as little as 5 key-strokes! [ crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. This is an elaboration of an.]. And of course, the 'open' command can be used to open anything that LaunchServices can - files, applications, URL's, and optionally specify the app to open them with.

Very powerful command - even if this is a bit of an odd use for it. You can do all you describe, or just go to the Finder (Command-Tab: 2), Connect to Server (Command-K: 4), navigate to your favorite server, and connect (Enter: 5).

There - 5 keystrokes from Terminal to connecting, and no aliases or shell machinations, and it works from any app - since you're command-tabbing to the Finder first. It would be much nicer if Screen Sharing.app would bring up your favorite VNC locations when launched from the Dock, but sadly a trip to the Finder is necessary. You could always put those favorites on the Dock as well, but then you'd lose out on keyboard access. Don't forget that you can embed the authentication like this vnc://username:password@ipaddressordomain if it's a mac that you are remoting into. Setting them up as a shell alias is one way to do it.

Storing them in Safari's bookmarks and the authentication in your keychain is another. Since I mostly work graphically and seldom in terminal, I put all my remote control links in a folder in my bookmarks bar. This has the side effect of also making them available on my iPad, and since I have iTeleport on my iPad the links work from there too. There is also the built-in Finder capability to create a ' VNC Internet Location' file with an extension of '.vncloc' similar to a 'Web Location' file storing afp, smb or http credentials in a '.webloc' file. This is cool. I just learned it is possible the same way an afp or smb shortcut can be made with credentials embedded:• Create the desired connection text in Text Edit or wherever, for example, 'vnc://username:password@ipaddressordomain'.• Select the entire text (without quotes) 'vnc://username:password@ipaddressordomain'.

Really, don't put the password in the link. You realize that this will allow anyone with internet access to remotely access the machine in question, if they have it. Doesn't the Screen Sharing application have keychain support? If so, I would recommend using that instead.

Common word processing programs for mac. And to the other poster, it is extremely easy to view the contents of the file. Just type cat file in the terminal. Actually, there's really no need to examine the file anyway, since it has the password in there, anyone who wants to use it just needs to open it (if they are on a Mac).

Thanks Rich, sure I use it on a daily basis (hence my desire to improve the abysmal poor user interface). I run on 10.5.8 and the application has not created such a folder.