Adobe CS2 Tips for Network Homes - Tips Version 2

Here is a list of my suggestions for improving performance of the Adobe CS2 applications for users with network home directories. Your suggestions are welcome.

1. Permissions for Adobe CS2 folders in Applications - The Adobe Photoshop CS2 folder does not have permissions set correctly; after installing, the folder is left read-write for all users. Correct this with the following commands:

sudo chmod -R 775 /Applications/Adobe\ Photoshop\ CS2
sudo chown -R root:admin /Applications/Adobe\ Photoshop\ CS2

This tip is computer-specific.

2. Permissions for the /Library/Application Support/Adobe folder - Change the /Library/Application Support/Adobe folder to root:admin, 777, so that all users can read and write temporary files and font caches to that folder. (Failure to do so will result in an I/O Error in Illustrator when launched as a staff user whose home resides on an automounted home directory share point.)

This tip is computer-specific.

3. Initial launch of Acrobat 7 requires local administrator authentication - This only has to be done once, and it adds the necessary CUPS backend (/usr/libexec/cups/) for the PDF printer.

This tip is computer-specific.

4. Move Document Recovery Area for InDesign to /Users/Shared (or other local folder) - Launch Adobe InDesign as a user whose home resides on a network volume. (If you can't launch InDesign, delete its preferences from the user's Preferences folder.) Choose InDesign > Preferences > File Handling, and set the InDesign Recovery folder to a local staff-writable folder like /Users/Shared. InDesign's default is to use ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/. Click OK and save the preferences, then relaunch InDesign for the new settings to take effect. Subsequent relaunches should be much faster.

This is a per-user preference setting, unique to each user's account. This settings change can also be accomplished via a login script, as defined in Workgroup Manager.

5. Move the "InDesign Recovery" folder and the "InDesign SavedData" file to a local folder, such as /Users/Shared - With InDesign quit, copy the ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 4.0/InDesign Recovery folder to a local folder such as /Users/Shared/InDesign Recovery; then create a symbolic link from the ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 4.0/InDesign Recovery to /Users/Shared/InDesign Recovery. Repeat the procedure for the InDesign SavedData file. The whole procedure in commands:

mv ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 4.0/InDesign\ Recovery /Users/Shared/InDesign\ Recovery
mv ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 4.0/InDesign\ SavedData /Users/Shared/InDesign\ SavedData
ln -s /Users/Shared/InDesign\ SavedData ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 4.0/InDesign\ SavedData
ln -s /Users/Shared/InDesign\ Recovery ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 4.0/InDesign\ Recovery

This is a per-user preference setting, unique to each user's account. This settings change can also be accomplished via a login script, as defined in Workgroup Manager.

6. Move the Acrobat cache folder to a local folder, such as /Users/Shared - Acrobat 7 normally keeps caches in ~/Library/Caches/Acrobat. Apparently Acrobat 7 has trouble reading these caches when they reside on a network (AFP) home directory hosted by Mac OS X Server 10.4.2. This results in a message about a failure to initialize the Organizer Database when opening a PDF file in Acrobat right after it has been launched.

Create a new folder named Acrobat in /Users/Shared, and then create a symbolic link from ~/Library/Caches/Acrobat to /Users/Shared/Acrobat:

mv ~/Library/Caches/Acrobat /Users/Shared/Acrobat
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Acrobat
ln -s /Users/Shared/Acrobat ~/Library/Caches/Acrobat

This is a per-user preference setting, unique to each user's account. This settings change can also be accomplished via a login scri