I need to create 2 accounts b/c my wife is driving me nuts! When I create the new account (hers) will she be able to able to access all of the documents and iTunes media? Can I have apications on my account and not on hers, vice versa?
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New iMac, creating 2 accounts...
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You should create three accounts.
An Admin account for system type stuff, and a Standard account each for your wife and yourself. Neither of you should use an Admin account for daily use. The danger of causing accidental trouble is too great. And it raises the risk of letting malware do nasty stuff.
You can each authorize whatever access to files and folders that you like.
An Admin account for system type stuff, and a Standard account each for your wife and yourself. Neither of you should use an Admin account for daily use. The danger of causing accidental trouble is too great. And it raises the risk of letting malware do nasty stuff.
You can each authorize whatever access to files and folders that you like.
This is not true. It makes no difference whether you use a standard or admin account for daily use. Anything malware could do on one account, it can do on the other. Anything the malware needs your admin password for, it would ask for it, whether you're running an admin or standard account. I think you're confusing admin account with the root user.
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The original question has not been addressed!
By default, all applications are shared. You need to move any unshared applications to the Applications folder in your Home folder. Note that application settings are almost always per-user anyway so there is hardly any reason, except maybe licensing, to not share the applications.
By default, documents and iTunes media are NOT shared or accessible. Each user's Public folder allows read-only sharing and the Drop Box folder* within the Public folder can be used for transferring files to the other user. Alternatively you can put files in /Users/Shared -- contents of that folder are readable and writable by everyone. You can place the iTunes media there as well but if you add frequently keeping the iTunes database up to date is an issue. iTunes hasn't been designed for sharing.
Beyond that there are "fancy" ways of sharing by modifying permissions and/or setting up groups (useful if there are three or more users and two people want to share between themselves).
* Not to be confused with the DropBox "cloud" service!
By default, all applications are shared. You need to move any unshared applications to the Applications folder in your Home folder. Note that application settings are almost always per-user anyway so there is hardly any reason, except maybe licensing, to not share the applications.
By default, documents and iTunes media are NOT shared or accessible. Each user's Public folder allows read-only sharing and the Drop Box folder* within the Public folder can be used for transferring files to the other user. Alternatively you can put files in /Users/Shared -- contents of that folder are readable and writable by everyone. You can place the iTunes media there as well but if you add frequently keeping the iTunes database up to date is an issue. iTunes hasn't been designed for sharing.
Beyond that there are "fancy" ways of sharing by modifying permissions and/or setting up groups (useful if there are three or more users and two people want to share between themselves).
* Not to be confused with the DropBox "cloud" service!
Actually, it was completely addressed by the link I posted and other links on that site, such as:
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer
The Shared and Public folders
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I'm not confusing admin and root.
Running in a standard account requires that additional step of providing the userid of the admin account in addition to the password. The difference may be psychological only, but for the inexperienced or those in a hurry, it can be the speed bump that saves the day.
If a user is exercising reasonable care in what they install, it doesn't matter if they enter a password, or a user name and password. If they're not exercising care, they can just as easily enter both without thinking about the consequences.