My argument at the time was that because the content of the MUD is so
valuable, it should actually be moved out of the user's workspace into the
Program Files area. Eventually I was persuaded that if we put it in the
MUD, the user would be more likely to see it and back it up.
That is not the reason, John. First of all, there is no designated "Program
Files" area on the Mac - you're thinking Windows again. There are two
possible other "areas": within the Microsoft Office 2004 folder, usually in
/Applications (i.e. "Program Files") on the root hard disk, which is where
all this stuff used to be, and is a very bad idea, or 2) the "Application
Support" folder within the user folder ("user's workspace"), which is a good
idea, but...
1) - anywhere within Microsoft Office 2004 folder is a terrible idea because
drag-and-drop updates of Office could wipe out all personal data,
permanently and irrevocably. That's what used to happen in Outlook Express
Mac before v5.0.2 introduced the first Microsoft User Data folder back in OS
9. Entourage 2001 used the same MUD folder for the same reasons, and then
Entourage X used separate MUD folders for each user in each user's
~/Documents/ folder. It was a brilliant idea, and Microsoft was the first to
do it on the Mac. Soon other apps, principally Adobe and Palm, followed suit
with their own _ User Documents folders.
2) In the meantime, somewhere around OS 10.1 or 10.2 (I forget), Apple also
decided it was a great idea to keep user files somewhere in the the user
sector and created an "Application Support" folder for each user, as well as
one on the hard disk Library. Some people advocate this as the correct
location for all apps. At this point, it would probably create confusion for
Office to change the location. Furthermore, the very, very large proportion
of files in the MUD really are documents rather than support files. By far
the largest bulk in the MUD, for most people, is occupied by the Entourage
identity databases containing encoded email messages, contacts, calendar,
etc. - data, documents. Entourage scripts and Word Normal template are more
like application support files, I suppose, but they are document files of a
sort as well, so it still makes sense to keep everything together.
Do not forget that every OS X "user" has completely separate sets of
Entourage identities, Word Normal template, etc. etc. OS X is a multi-user
environment, and Office takes full advantage of it. So the "user's
workspace" (OS X user directory) is absolutely the right place for all of
this stuff. I think there's definitely something to be said for keeping it
all together in the MUD folder in ~/Documents/ rather than splitting it up
between there and ~/Application Support/Microsoft Office User Support
Files/, also somewhere (a different location) in the "user's workspace".
Perhaps this is the argument you're recalling, John. But both these places
are still within the user directory, where they need to be. Nobody, but
nobody, ever advocated putting them in the central hard disk "Program Files"
(/Applications) area. In fact, I strongly feel that "My Templates" and all
the Startup Folders, should also be moved to the MUD folder (or the putative
~/Application Support/ area within the user folder). It should all be
user-designated and -controlled.
Sorry
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <
http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
