OS X Mountain Lion Bible

Sharing Documents with Other Users

OS X is a multi-user operating system, so it is possible that the account you are working in is running alongside many other user accounts on the same Mac. While different users share the OS X disks and many of the system files, the elements of each user account (including the personal documents) are available only to the user who is currently logged in. The process of setting up and managing different accounts is covered in detail in Chapter 25.

While you are logged in to your account, you cannot access the files stored on another user's portion of OS X on your Mac, unless they've given you file-sharing access to their folders, as explained in Chapter 23. To get at the files on another user's account, you need to log out and then log back in as that user. Of course, this means that you won't be able to access the documents in your account (or copy any files from that user's account to your own).

However, you can share files with other users—both those with accounts on your Mac and those whose computers are available on the network—by means of the Drop Box or the AirDrop feature, as Chapter 23 explains. You also can use the new Share icon menu available in many applications to share documents via e-mail, Twitter, Messages, and other services, as Chapter 23 also explains.

Picking up a file that has been placed in the Drop Box is easy. Go to the Drop Box in the Public Folder in your Home folder. Any files that other users have placed in your Drop ...