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Making an Alias from a read-only location

I want to make an Alias of the "My Documents" folder, located in a Windows partition created by Boot Camp (and formatted NTFS). I want the alias to be located in the Mac OS X desktop or in my Home folder for easy access. The thing is, it won't allow me to make aliases of read-only locations. How can I do this?

Black MacBook (1 GB RAM), Mac OS X (10.4.8), My new MacBook rules!

Posted on Nov 10, 2006 6:55 PM

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3 replies

Nov 10, 2006 7:34 PM in response to AliXandre

The "Make Alias" menu items in the "Finder" work by creating an alias in the same directory as the original, so it isn't possible to use them on a file in a "read only" directory, as you have discovered.

However, since you are creating the alias in a location that is writable to you (ie. your OS X Desktop), it should be possible to create an alias using an alternate method: hold down the "command" (⌘) and "Option" (⌥) keys, click on the item of interest, and drag it to the "Desktop". When those modifier keys are used, the mouse pointer should turn into a "curved arrow" badge, and an alias should be created at the destination rather than moving or copying the original.

Making an Alias from a read-only location

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