09-11-2006, 11:33 AM

I am a recent 'switcher' from Windows XP to Mac. I have a home network and in Windows XP there is a My Documents Folder which points to My Documents on that specific computer which also contains a My Videos, My Pictures, and My Music Folder. Well I store all these files in a data folder on a main (server) computer, then the respective folders under Data, My Documents, My Pictures, etc. The reason I do this is I have the one main server but also a 2nd desktop and a laptop and I want to be able to share all these files at home among the computers.
Well I use a program called TweakXP that I can tell the computers where to look for these files so that automatically when I select My Documents it looks at that folder on the server. Is there a way of doing this on Mac? I see that under OS X in the Finder there is a Documents, Videos, Music, and Pictures folder. Of course these seem to look at that specific folder but is it possible under OS X or even with a 3rd party program to have these folders point to the specific folders on this computer? If not I know I can still select the drive on the server in Finder and use it that way but it would be more convenient if there is a way to do this.
As well, is there a way to make programs such as ITunes look specifically at the music folder on the main computer, Iphoto look at the My Pictures folder, etc. I noticed that even if I browse to music on the main computer and then play it in iTunes by clicking on it iTunes still will not find it when I open the program. it appears that I have to actually import the music and by doing this it copies the music to the music folder on the iMac. I assume the same is true with iPhoto so does this mean that it's necessary to copy all these files to my imac and not store them on the server if I want to use them this way? Thanks in advance for any help.

09-11-2006, 12:03 PM

I'll use the "Pictures" folder as an example:

Right click your Pictures folder.
Create Alias...
Move the Pictures folder (original) to the server. (Make sure the server is FAT32 or HFS+.)
Double click the Alias (still on your computer) and it will open the Pictures folder on the server.

In iTunes, you can go to iTunes>Preferences and choose where iTunes looks for music.