It is not only possible to have separate Mac OS X login accounts for several individuals on one computer— in Entourage, it is possible to have multiple Entourage user identities within a single Mac OS X login account. This capability was created before the release of Mac OS X to allow multiple users to more easily share Entourage on a single computer. Separate identities allowed each user to have separate Entourage preferences, messages, Calendar events, and other items. Now, however, this separation of Entourage user preferences is provided with better security and ease of use by the multi-user login features of Mac OS X.
Therefore, we do not recommend setting up Entourage identities for multiple users within a single Mac OS X login account. When an Entourage user logs in to Mac OS X, he or she should use his or her own login account.
Difficulties that are associated with allowing multiple Entourage users to share a single Mac OS X login account include the following:
Entourage security is compromised because there is no password protection between the identities. Users can read each others' mail and can impersonate each other when they are sending mail.
Computer security is compromised because users of all the identities have access to the documents and network rights of the user whose Mac OS X login account they are using.
Spotlight searches that are conducted from the Finder commingle results from all users' Entourage data.
You can relocate multiple Entourage identities that exist within a single user login account to separate Mac OS X user accounts. To relocate identities to separate user accounts, you must log in by using the Administrator account. You can move the folder for an identity, or the whole Microsoft User Data folder, to a shared folder. The user can then import the identity from the shared folder when setting up his or her account. For more information on importing into Entourage, see Entourage Help.
