Duplicating settings for new account on same computer

[nealf]

I've just set up a new account on my new macbook.

Is there a way to get all the settings, bookmarks and email accounts and mail into the new mac account. It gives you a blank computer. But I'd like to have Mail and Entourage setup the same way as the original account with all the saved emails.
And also to have all my bookmarks from Safari. And what about retrieving particular documents? Seems like there must be an easy way.

Also, is there a way to switch back and forth without having to type in the password each time?

Thanks.

 

[spinnerlys]

You could copy the following folders from he old account to the new one:

Safari: Users/YouOLD/Library/Safari - it contains the settings and the bookmarks

Mail: Users/YouOLD/Library/Mail - contains the mailboxes
Users/YouOLD/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist - it's a file

You just copy the to them same locations, just under Users/YouNEW/Library/... .

For Fast User Switching you could just have both accounts with no passwords, otherwise it would be an insufficient security measure (to change between two accounts with passwords, but without entering passwords).

Or just a simple password for both like 1 or p or whatever suits you.

 

[nealf]

Thanks spinnerlys.

Just to clarify. Are you saying not using passwords for accounts is a bad idea?

 

[spinnerlys]

No, not really, but if others have access to your computer, physically or via LAN, a password might be a good idea.

 

[BlueRevolution]

A password, as well as FileVault, are excellent ideas in all cases, especially yours. Your computer is a laptop, so it can easily get left or stolen, and its new "owner" will have access to everything.

I just bought an iBook from eBay, and the previous owner had left a PDF document containing his banking information on the desktop of the default user account, which was not password-protected – and it was apparently a shared computer belonging to a school district.

 

[nealf]

Thanks guys.