As an administrator, you can modify many Office 2008 application preferences and deploy them to your users. For example, you can set default locations for saving files or set the level of junk e-mail protection. This makes it possible for you to enhance security, standardize application settings, and decrease the amount of time you spend managing Office on your network.
To establish a standard set of preferences for users, you set preferences for each application and then deploy the corresponding preference files or settings to users' home folders.
Most Office 2008 preferences are stored as a key/value pairA specifier that consists of two data elements: one (the key) uniquely identifies a parameter; the second (the value) sets a value for that parameter. in the property list (.plist) files. These .plist files, also known as preference files, are stored in /Users/username/Library/Preferences. However, some Office 2008 preferences are stored in other locations such as in the Entourage 2008 database.
For information about preference file locations, see Office 2008 preference file locations for deployment in the Office 2008 Deployment section.
The first time a user opens an Office 2008 application, Office finds the preference files that correspond to that application and then uses the settings that are stored in the files.
You can use the following methods to deploy preferences:
Workgroup Manager Use Workgroup Manager specifically when you want to modify preference settings that have been deployed already or when you want to manage individual preferences in a .plist file without disrupting other settings in the same file.
Apple Remote Desktop Use Apple Remote Desktop when you want to replace or update application preferences.
