Documents folder & multiple partitions: a follow-up
Documents folder & multiple partitions: a follow-up
Most readers suggested not making an alias of the Identities folder, as we had suggested, but rather making an alias of the entire Documents folder. This solves the problem for Entourage and every other application that uses this folder. A few suggested making an alias just for the Microsoft User Data folder, but why stop there? It seems to make more sense to make it for the entire Documents folder. Jeff Krueger reports these alias methods work even across a network.
P.M. Ericsson suggests that if you use Multiple Users and have several different accounts, a more convenient solution may be to make aliases of the Entourage folders and place them in the same folder as Entourage itself. Doing so enables you to launch Entourage from whichever system you like.
Rob Petrovec suggested dispensing with aliases altogether and simply deleting the Documents folder on all partitions except one: "When you launch Entourage, it will find the folder (cause there is only one) no matter what partition its on, and use that one for its Microsoft User Data location. If you want, you can still create an alias of the remaining Documents folder and put it on each other partition. The same can be done with your Applications (Mac OS 9) folder. This way when you run an installer it will always install into that Applications (Mac OS 9) folder."
Jim Riggs found that if you just move the Identities folder to the Entourage folder, Entourage will use this in all cases, in preference to what is in the Documents folder, which can then be deleted.
One reader claimed that placing an alias to the Identities folder in the Preferences folder of all System Folders worked for him. We did not try this.
Eudora and OS 9/X switching Jim Gaynor describes a similar solution to a problem with switching between OS 9 and OS X with Eudora:
"Eudora 5, under OS 9, defaults to storing mail and preferences in Eudora Folder in the Documents folder. The Eudora OS X beta defaults to storing mail and preferences in Eudora Folder, stored in /home/<user>/Documents. If you find yourself going back and forth between OS X and 9, you can still access your mail - the same mail and preferences - using either the OS 9 or Carbon Eudora. The trick is to simply pick one place to store your Eudora Folder (either Documents or /home/<user>/Documents/, then make an alias and store it in the other location."