I'm looking for software that will let me cut and paste between computers on the same LAN. Anyone know a good program preferably cheap.

Cut and paste what? I do it with files and folders all the time if that's what you are talking about.

-Hal

Drag & drop to the shared documents folder is what I do - or are you looking for something much more complex?

Sam

In the event that you're not talking about files and rather text selections or graphics, Remote Desktop/Terminal Services support this as well as a wide variety of other remote desktop type of clients.

Yes it is text and graphics etc. that I want to copy from one computer and paste it into doc on the second computer. I would also like to copy stuff from web site on 1st PC and paste the info into doc on 2nd PC.

Sam, if you make the C drive shared it will come up on another machine just as if it was on that machine. You can drag and drop from one drive to the other, delete files and folders, etc.

-Hal

Merritt, that's easily done by pasting into something like a Word doc, copying to the other machine then opening it there and pasting to wherever you want it. That's for text, of course if it's a graphics file just copy it. Then again there is nothing to keep you from having Word for instance open a doc on another machine across the network.

You make it sound like the first computer is unattended or somebody elses.

-Hal

Merritt -

In this case, as Ampleworks pointed out, remote desktop is probably your best friend.

Essentially you'll log into one PC from another, and it will appear as you are actually sitting in front of the second PC. From there, you just highlight the text/graphics you want to copy, hit Ctrl-C, then "go back" to the first PC and hit shift-Insert (there are other key combos that will work as well, I've just always used these).

This does require some configuration though, and it does depend on what version of windows you are running. I'm guessing you're running windows XP. Now, is it the home or business edition?

Merritt -

I've gotta sign off for the night, but assuming you're running XP business here's an article that will walk you through the configuration. If you have the time, I highly recc. remote desktop, it comes in handy for a lot more than copying/pasting stuff.

If you're running XP home edition, you'll need to go with Hal's suggestion, as I don't believe XP Home supports remote desktop.

Remote Desktop

An alternative to Hal's suggestion would be to just mail the text/graphics to yourself.

Update: you might have a look at this page for 3 other options to solve your problem:

Other options


Best of luck,
Matt

I know that I can cut and paste into a shared folder but I was hoping to find something that would make it work like a dual monitor setup but with the monitors on different PCs. I would like to be able to highlight something on one PC, scroll mouse over to second monitor and directly paste it into doc on second PC.

Merritt -

That is EXACTLY what remote desktop will do for you. But it depends on what OS you are running as to whether or not this is an option.

Gotta go,

Best of luck with this -

Matt

If they are both internet connected, you could log into Google Docs on both computers and paste all graphics/text/etc into an open doc. When it autosaves, it will be accessible on the second computer as well.

Doing the same thing that Tony suggested but it can be done over the LAN with just a shared text document or even MS Word file.

Basic requirements for remote desktop:
-PC that you want to control needs to have one of the following operating systems:
2000, XP Pro (not home), Vista Business or Ultimate, 7 Pro or Ultimate, or any of the server versions.

One PC is XP Pro the other is 7 Pro. I was looking for something that make them act as one PC. I have seen MACs that do this but not sure about PC. It makes the 2 seem like they are one you can cut, copy and paste from one to the other and drag and drop files.

On the Mac it's done via Screen Share or VNC.

If you want to use something similar to the Remote Desktop with screen visibility, drag and drop and file transfer, try Team Viewer's free version - https://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

You can pass control back and forth too.

The software you are looking for is called Synergy. It's an open source project.

https://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

from the description:

synergy: [noun] a mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct elements

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.

Synergy is open source and released under the GNU Public License (GPL).

System Requirements

* Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me (the Windows 95 family)
* Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (the Windows NT family)
* Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
* Unix
o X Windows version 11 revision 4 or up
o XTEST extension
(use "xdpyinfo | grep XTEST" to check for XTEST)

All systems must support TCP/IP networking.

"Unix" includes Linux, Solaris, Irix and other variants. Synergy has only been extensively tested on Linux and may not work completely or at all on other versions of Unix. Patches are welcome (including patches that package binaries) at the patches page.

The Mac OS X port is incomplete. It does not synchronize the screen saver, only text clipboard data works (i.e. HTML and bitmap data do not work), the cursor won't hide when not on the screen, and there may be problems with mouse wheel acceleration. Other problems should be filed as bugs.

Thats it tantivy I think Synergy is the software I was looking for I'll give it a try.

Thanks everyone