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document updated 15 years ago, on Dec 12, 2008

Synergy's computer-position-configuration screen is very powerful and flexible, but it's also a pain in the ass to modify. I have a very dynamic environment at work, with laptops frequently joining and leaving the group. So I've settled on using one common configuration most of the time:

`. . .`	top_left2	top_left1	top_center	top_right1	top_right2	`. . .`
`. . .`	bot_left2	bot_left1	Synergy server	bot_right1	bot_right2	`. . .`

The reason this works so well is that if a computer with a name of (for example) "bot_left50" hasn't joined yet, then Synergy prevents the mouse from scrolling over that far. However, if "bot_left50" is connected, and "bot_left49" through "bot_left1" aren't connected, and you move the mouse left from the server, then Synergy will automatically jump over the hole, jumping immediately to "bot_left50". In that sense, it's as if the "hole" didn't exist. However, if "top_left1" through "top_left50" do exist, then when you scroll up, you end up on "top_left50". So the notion of automatically-skipped-holes-with-preserved-relative-positions works very well.

(the only thing it doesn't handle smoothly is the ability to wrap around from the far-left edge to the far-right edge)

It's true that this configuration sacrifices some of the precision and flexibility of custom configuration (allowing screens to overlap each other only partially, for instance). However, if you have a very dynamic environment, it's better just to get something that works quickly, even if it has some rounding errors, than it is to take forever to configure it perfectly.

In most cases, I literally set each client's screen name to be (for example) "bot_left1". This lets you control the position from the client end, and this allows you to connect a client for the first time very quickly, and it's most appropriate for computers that will only be part of the group for a short time.

However, you can also leave the client's screen name to be the same as its computer name, and just set aliases for "bot_left1" on the server side, allowing you to control the position from there. This is more appropriate for computers that will be part of the group for a longer period of time.