I'm just going through setting up my new MBPro for my wife and I to use, and have to admit I'm disappointed. Why? iPhoto. I was really hoping to be able to share a library between our user accounts, so I could organize and touch up photos and she could email them to family, etc. With multiple user accounts you can't share a single library unless it it stored externally (ext. or networked drive), or locally as an image or partitioned drive with all permissions wide open (and don't even get me started on the partitioning thing!).
Honestly, I had hoped moving to a Mac would save me from all of the hacks I had to make on our PC in order to make things work properly.
I'm considering just using one user profile to solve the iPhoto thing (and attempt to keep things simple) but that raises issues with our email. What would the best approach be to 2 users sharing the same profile but wanting to utilise mutiple email accounts? Set my wife up with Mail and use Thunderbird for myself?
Nice. Have one problem with a program and blame the entire platform.
What you've run into is actually a feature, not a bug. The Mac's rigid user account system is what protects you from the majority of problems that cause Windows users all manner of difficulty. For multiple user setups, you really should make the call between the inconvenience of sharing files between accounts, and the simplicity of keeping everything in one. Here's a hint if you choose the latter, since you've got a clue on the former: use different email clients. You have Mail, give your wife Thunderbird, for example.
If you do decide to go with a single user you can have multiple email accounts within mail.
As you go along with your new system, check in here for the best ways to do what you want. Apple has tried to create user friendly systems but you can't anticipate the specific needs of every user. We'll do what we can to fill in the "gaps".
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... I think the discourage will leave as you learn OS X. You are on the other side of the fence where there are sunny skies and bright green grass...lay down your fear...microsoft won't get you here...
Unlike microcrap, Mac Help actually works...here is what "share files" returns...
Where can I keep shared files?
The Shared and Public folders let you share files with other people.
The Shared folder is located in the Users folder on your hard disk. You can use it to share files with other users on your computer. The Shared folder is set up with Read & Write permissions so that all users can open the files in this folder and copy files to the folder.
Use your personal Public folder inside your home folder to share files with other people on the network. To share information in your Public folder, you must turn on Personal File Sharing in the Sharing pane of System Preferences. Your Public folder is set up with "Read only" permissions that allow others to see and copy its contents, but not change the content.
Your Public folder also contains a Drop Box folder, which is set up so other people can copy files to your Drop Box, but they cannot see its contents.
Certainly there is a learning curve involved here that isn't making things easier, but I'm picking things up as I go. Installing VLC (and figuring out how to associate .avi files with it) and migrating from Microsoft Outlook (ended up purchasing O2M to make it simple - well worth the $10!!) both worked out OK.
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Nice. Have one problem with a program and blame the entire platform.
Ha - not quite! Don't get me wrong, I dig the Mac. I just expected more "out of the box" support for a feature that seems reasonable to be included - there are a number of posts over at the Apple support forum about this as well so I'm not the only one who expected it! Just didn't expect to be rolling up my sleeves so early in the game (score one for Apple marketting) - I'm sure once I figure out the nuts and bolts of OS X I'll be a happy camper.
AFA iPhoto is concerned, I think the best way for my wife and I to BOTH have read/write permissions to the same library is to use a partition with open permissions (kind of a scary proposition security wise, but that's what backups are for). I can use bootcamp to create the partition, but instead of installing XP (don't want to go back down that road!) I can format it Mac (journalling). From what I've read, using the shared folder can be problematic, with only one user having read/write priveledges and the other only able to read (something to do with iPhoto defaulting to saving with the current users credentials).
I will create a sample library and give the shared folder iPhoto library a stab first (it certainly would be the easiest!) but creating a partition with bootcamp isn't too bad either. Btw, I didn't know about the bootcamp partition trick before, I thought I was looking at having to reinstal OS X in order to partition the drive, hence some of the frustration!
As you are new to Macs, there are some sites which will help you on your way. Apple.com, of course; but I find Pure Mac: Software for Macintosh to be very easy to use, and has a fairly good listing of available software for Macs. The other tool is the Sourceforge, as well as the many ports of Open Source software that are available for the Mac as well as other platforms.
Macs really allow you to do anything, but you will have to get used to the accounts system, and the need to correctly set file permissions and the use of shared folders. They are way easier to use than infernal Windoze boxes, but you do have to get away from the Windoze mentality...
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Mac User since 1989
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iPhone 3GS 32GB on Rogers Canada Master of the Art Of Geek.
Macs really allow you to do anything, but you will have to get used to the accounts system, and the need to correctly set file permissions and the use of shared folders.
Yes, this is something I'll have to learn more about, as well as the idea of the keychain.
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Apple Knowledge base to the rescue!
madgunde, I did see that knowledge base article. I mentioned the ext. drive solution earlier (doesn't work well with my laptop setup however) - the image is still a posibility, but I have to find the time to play around with iPhoto...
I have been wondering about this myself for a while. The solutions I had seen up till now were far to "hackish" or overly complicated. This is a great tip that will help a lot of people.
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