Section 113. Use the Shared Folder

113. Use the Shared Folder

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

118 Add a New User

19 Move, Copy, or Delete a Document or Folder

SEE ALSO

112 Switch to Another User

Normally, one user cannot rummage around in the folders inside another user's Home folder. If there are multiple users on the same machine, you can use the Finder to navigate to another user's Home folder (all Home folders are inside the Users folder at the top level of the startup disk), but with the exception of the Public and Sites folders, all the user's personal folders are closed to viewing by others.

113. Use the Shared Folder

So how does one user share documents, folders, and applications with another user on the same machine? How can you publish a file so that everybody on the system can access it equally? Using the Shared folder, located inside the Users folder at the same level as all the Home folders. The Shared folder has permissions such that any user can place items into it and access items that other users have put there, but only the user who put an item there (or an Admin user) can change it or delete it from the folder.

1.	Locate the Shared Folder Open a Finder window and navigate to the Shared folder. The easiest way to do this is to click the computer's hard disk icon in the Sidebar (or choose Go, Computer and open the disk), switch to Column view, and click the Users folder. The Shared folder is there inside Users .
2.	Place Items in the Shared Folder Drag documents, folders, or applications into the Shared folder, or save documents directly into it from your applications. NOTE If you create an alias to some item in your Home folder and put the alias in the Shared folder, note that the original item has to be in a publicly accessible folder ( Public, Sites , or any folder you have created yourself at the same level) for other users to be able to use the alias.
3.	Switch to Another User Either use Fast User Switching if it is enabled (see 112 Switch to Another User ) to switch to another user or log out and log in as the other user.
4.	Retrieve the Items from the Shared Folder Navigate to the Shared folder. You can access any items placed in that folder, open them in applications, or copy them to your own Desktop simply by dragging (as though they are stored on a different volume).
5.	Authenticate As Admin User Before Moving or Deleting Items If you are an Admin user, you can move other users' items out of the Shared folder (by holding down the key as you drag it) to your Desktop or the Trash. To make sure that you have the permissions to do this, Mac OS X prompts you for an Admin user's password before it commits such an action.

NOTE

If you are the user who placed the items in the Shared folder, you can also freely move or delete them without having to authenticate.