How best to share Numbers spreadsheet usage between two networked Macs?

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How best to share Numbers spreadsheet usage between two networked Macs?

I have never really shared files between two users as my wife always had a Windows computer. She recently purchased an iMac and now has Numbers, so we are interested in sharing access to a couple of spreadsheets for household management. I have racked my brain trying to figure out how to share a file like this, expecting to show her how easy it is on a Mac, but so far I am making it look as difficult to figure out as it was for her on a windows network. Needless to say she is not very impressed with me or with file sharing on a Mac!

I have a iWork numbers spreadsheet I wantto share between myself on my iMac and my wife on her iMac on our local/home network. I tried keeping the file in my Public Folder but that apparently is not designed to allow my wife to make changes to and re-save back to the same location in my public folder.

So how else can I set this up to allow both my wife and I to acess (at different times, not simultaneously) the file, make changes, and save it back to the same location? I have a family MobileMe account as well as the local networked iMacs, if that is a possible solution.

I have heard some people talk about the 3rd party tool called DropBox, but I would like to keep to a local/Apple solution if this is possible with Apple hardware/software.

Thanks in advance to all you gurus for whom this is an easy fix. 🙂

2.33ghz iMac & brand new iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 27, 2010 6:31 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 27, 2010 7:18 AM in response to Thomas Bailey

Have her log in as the same user that shares out the file. For example:

Your username on your iMac is "bob", and your file is somewhere in your home folder. You have filesharing turned on.
In her Finder sidebar, she should see your computer. Click it, and click "Connect As", then log in with the username "bob", and the appropriate password. She can then mount your home folder to her desktop and edit the files. Since she's authenticated as "bob", there should be no permissions issues.

Matt

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Dec 27, 2010 7:59 AM in response to Thomas Bailey

I would recommend either using Drop Box or why not tryout iwork.com. Look on the top of the spreadsheet and you will see a link to it. For your needs I would think iwork.com would be a great solution.

http://www.apple.com/iwork/iwork-dot-com/

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Answer 3

Thomas Bailey Author

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106 points

Dec 27, 2010 8:01 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Hi RKaufmann.

I'm not at home right now to try it out, but the last I heard when iWork was introduced ti did not allow others to edit documents (add entries to a spreadsheet is our goal), only to view them and make comments. Is it editable nowadays by other viewers?

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Dec 27, 2010 8:06 AM in response to Thomas Bailey

I have to admit I don't really use it, I just recall it. I believe you are correct that's really a viewer but take try it out and see and here is a link to the page:

http://www.apple.com/iwork/iwork-dot-com/

I think it would work well with Dropbox, you can use iwork.com for putting notes or comments on the document. So you could share the doc using Dropbox and then each mate can put their comments about changes or other edits using iwork.com so the other mate can know what the other was thinking.

Message was edited by: rkaufmann87

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Answer 5

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Dec 27, 2010 8:14 AM in response to rkaufmann87

I spent a few minutes playing with it and yeah it would would work great. You can send the document to your mate as a numbers document, an Excel document or PDF. So the other person can edit it and send it back with notes and annotations.

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Answer 6

bdmarsha

Level 4

2,580 points

Dec 27, 2010 8:40 AM in response to Thomas Bailey

Turn on File Sharing on the computer that you wish to use as the host. Then any file saved in the Shared user folder will be available to any user with login privileges. Frequently accessed files can be added to the sidebar in a Finder window for quick access. You can also share items such as your iPhoto library this way.

bd

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Answer 7

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Dec 27, 2010 8:45 AM in response to bdmarsha

Another good solution!

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Answer 8

Thomas Bailey Author

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106 points

Dec 27, 2010 8:54 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Share the document via DropBox and discuss changes via iwork.com comments.
Neat idea; I'll check that out later this evening, thanks for the help here.

For sharing the file it seems there are two preferred methods:

1. create a file sharing local user account to host the share documents entirely on a local network. Pros: not routed through the internet. Cons: requires entering a user name and password for access. *(Can Keychain remember the shared account login credentials and enter this for you automatically to make this process even easier?)*

2. Use a dropbox account. Pros: no need to enter login credentials each time. Cons: requires internet access to upload and distribute changes.

Any other issues to consider between the two options?

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Answer 9

Thomas Bailey Author

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106 points

Dec 27, 2010 10:22 AM in response to Thomas Bailey

FYI,

I've decided to go with DropBox for two or three reasons.

1. I have used dropbox for my own syncing needs for 2 years now, never had an issue, and it works seamlessly.

2. My wife already has experience herself with DropBox, so the learning curve will be shallow for her as opposed to learning remote login and file sharing concepts on the Mac.

3. Almost every comparison of MobileMe to DropBox puts DropBox way ahead of MobileMe for ease of use, syncing without problems, and stability.

Thanks to all for batting around the options in sharing usage to our Numbers spreadsheet at home.

Message was edited by: Thomas Bailey

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Answer 10

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Dec 27, 2010 10:56 AM in response to Thomas Bailey

Smart decision and well done on making it quickly!

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Answer 11

Thomas Bailey Author

Level 1

106 points

Dec 27, 2010 12:40 PM in response to rkaufmann87

The other neat thing with DropBox is that we can each have separate DropBox accounts and then create a folder that is shared between the two DropBox accounts, as opposed to having to both share the same DropBox account.

Pretty slick!

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