I'm not sure what you mean by "before". It's been this way for SEVEN YEARS! Microsoft introduced the Microsoft User Data folder back in 1999 (or maybe it was even 1998) when Outlook Express 5.0.2 and OS 9 came out. It was a huge improvement over the old way of dong things on the Mac, where data and support files were generally inside the application's own folder. That meant that when you update the app, you could really lose all your data, permanently. (A few apps put stuff inside the System Folder/Preferences/, which was crazier.)
Microsoft was the first to make this improvement on the Mac - they led the way. It became particularly useful with OS 9's Multiple Users (the precursor of multi-user support in OS X), where every user had his/her own Documents folder, etc. That's why they put it inside the Documents folder - there was no better place in those days. Palm, Adobe and a few others followed Microsoft's lead, way back then. When Apple introduced OS X, they created a new place for such things: the Application Support folder in each user's Library folder. In some ways, that might be a netter location, since that's the place people expect it now. On the other hand, your Entourage Database is data - like documents. And in the early days of OS X, before things had settled down, they were trying to keep some compatibility with what people knew from OS 9 (Entourage 2001 had used the same MUD folder as Outlook Express from its inception in 2000). It's really just you who didn't know about it. Perhaps you're new to Entourage? The MUD folder has always needed to remain in a Documents folder, or an alias needed to be there, since it was invented 6 or more years ago. That's a pretty venerable time in computer-land. -- Paul Berkowitz MVP MacOffice Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html> AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/> PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using - 2004, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions otherwise. > From: laura m <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: "Entourage:mac Talk" <[email protected]> > Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:52:54 -0800 > To: "Entourage:mac Talk" <[email protected]> > Conversation: Microsoft User Data folder > Subject: Re: Microsoft User Data folder > > Perhaps the real problem is that the docs that come with the program(s) > don't make this clear enough to a Mac user, who has never had to worry > before about relocating folders and files at will. It surprised me how many > Office users I know reported having encountered this problem before and how > quickly they conceded that the data was lost forever. > > > On 3/14/06 9:42 AM, "Paul Berkowitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> You can still move the Microsoft User Data folder, or any subfolder, >> anywhere you want, as long as you make an alias to it in the correct >> location. > > > -- > To unsubscribe: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > archives: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> > old-archive: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/> > > -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
