Move "Microsoft User Data" of office 2011 out of user "Document" folder

Or for that matter, move it to another hard drive completely?

With Office 2004, you could simply move it to the library/application support folder and it would stay there. But since 2008, it creates a new Microsoft User Data folder in your documents folder.

This is one of the reasons I ditched 2008 and moved to iWork.

Solution:

Place the Microsoft User Data in any location you choose and create a symbolic link that is placed in the Documents folder. Make sure it is a symbolic link and not just an alias because otherwise you may encounter some problems in the future.

You can do this with a command line or use this service:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/10433/symboliclinker

You'll have to rebuild Identities for Outlook (Outlook will do this automatically), but nothing will be changed.

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Let me know if you encounter any problems.

On my MBP using Office 2011 this worked perfectly, no alias or symblinks required.

http://blog.nydanny.com/technology/go-away-microsoft-remove-annoying-microsoft-user-data-folder/

grapii said:

On my MBP using Office 2011 this worked perfectly, no alias or symblinks required.

http://blog.nydanny.com/technology/go-away-microsoft-remove-annoying-microsoft-user-data-folder/

Click to expand...

Same here! BTW, I use the the German version of Office 2011. Thanks for confirming this and providing the URL, grapii.