Run two SEPARATE address books from one user. problems with multiple accounts?

[greenb1]

Hi There,

hope someone has an idea that helps..

Basically i share a macbook pro with my housemate. I want to run the machine from a single user rather than have separate logins..

Now I understand that some people have very strong views about the simplicity of mutiple users, however in my experience (particular to MY situation) is that any time you want to quickly use the machine, it invloves closing and saving all open apps, logging out, loggin in, waiting, emailing etc, logging out, logging in, reopening programs.. basically you spend more time restarting than computing.

So a single user works best for us and it's easy enough as we use different programs and I can dump both our email accounts into Mail. I can even load up separate itunes libraries or iphoto libraries (if i ever used iphoto) from the same user account.
HOWEVER - kind of crucial is two separate address books. Now before everyone starts saying "just use groups etc" I have tried this and it's seems a mess...

- If you <add contact> from directly from Mail (say someone who has just written to you) to your address book, you have no way of specifying where they end up so you then have to open your address book and trawl through all the names until you find the new entry...
- Once our address books are merged, then modified - how do we unmerge them....
-I dont want to look through 2000 of my housemates email addresses - some we have may be also be duplicates...

mess...

So has anyone got a solution? - can you load up address book libraries like itunes? or better yet, have a ghost address book app?

I have a feeling that casual sharing of computers is not what mac is all about - everyone has their own personal little space - or better yet, their own computer!! Don't get me wrong, I've used these machines all my life, I have little choice - just frustrated..


Any help much appreciated

gB1

 

[joel6653]

Using multiple accounts is far easier than you think

I share my Mac with someone else in the house, using separate accounts. Switching users is nowhere near as complicated as you described. No saving, closing, logging out, etc. When the other user needs the computer, I merely click on my name in the upper-right of the menu bar, select "Login Window...," and get up out of the chair. When the other person is done, they do the same thing. Either or both of us can be logged in at the same time, and leave running whatever programs we use. When one of us returns, we get right back to where we left off, merely by logging back in. The wait time is measured in seconds, not that I measure it, but I'm guessing it's less than 15. This is all on an Intel Mac desktop, currently running Snow Leopard with 4GB of memory, but the procedure has worked just as well when I had only 2GB of memory and was using Leopard.

 

[Le Big Mac]

OP may need to turn on "fast user switching" in order to make, well, fast user switches.

I see some drawbacks to groups as OP points out, but absent user switching they don't seem too cumbersome. And of course, a single address book entry can be added to more than one group so if there are "duplicates" you can put them in both your individual groups. Added bonus is that if one of you updates it's updated for both.

 

[exmex]

More Address books

I use several address books on one computer. When I back up an address book I insert initials before or after the date. I use Home for one and Work for the other. The backups are kept in the documents file. Always back up the current one you are going to overwrite and then double click on the one you want to bring up. Click OK on the reverting warning and you are done. You can have as many address books as you want by identifying each one. I haven't figured out how to have two open at the same time.