Sharing Photo, Video and Music files

Question

My new iMac has arrived and I'm looking forward to transferring across all my files at the weekend and to starting to use it.
We use the computer as a family computer although we have different accounts on the computer. I would like to enable all members of the family to have access to all photo, video and music files when they are signed into their individual accounts and using iLife.
My question is this: where should I place these files to enable common access. At the moment they are stored under my user name and therefore only I can access them. A slight refinement on this is that although I want to encourage the kids to use iLife and develop their skills in this area, I want to make sure that they don't delete/alter any of the original files so would ideally like them to save any changes they make in a new file under their accounts.
Hopefully this makes sense!

Answer 1

harris101
I want to make sure that they don't delete/alter any of the original files so would ideally like them to save any changes they make in a new file under their accounts.
What you mean by 'share'.
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
To protect your own user account:
Create a new Account on your Mac, call it Media. Create an iPhoto Library there. (BTW: This will work for iTunes too.)
Enable Sharing on the Library:(Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other accounts. In those accounts, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. The Library will appear in the other source pane.
This means that both users will be able to see the pics. If you want to use a pic then simply drag it from the shared Library to your own in the iPhoto Window. This means that each user can have their own edits.
If you want to add photos to the Library: Log into the Media account for that purpose.
To make it all seamless: Set your Mac to log into the Media Account automatically. Set iPhoto to launch on log-in. Then switch to your own account using Fast User Switching.
Net result: a Library that's permanently available to all users but also protected. Each user can have their own versions of the pics if they want.
Regards
TD