Deploying Communicator for Mac 2011 preferences

Office for Mac 2011 will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see these resources.

 

Applies to: Office for Mac 2011

Topic Last Modified: 2016-12-16

If you customize Communicator for Mac preferences, you can choose one of the methods that is described in this section to deploy the preferences to users on the network. For more information about the preferences that you can manage, see Communicator for Mac 2011 managed preferences

Before you deploy the preferences, users must quit Communicator. The preference setting changes are applied when users reopen Communicator.

Deploying preferences by using Workgroup Manager

You can use Workgroup Manager to deploy preferences and define privileges by user, by group, or by computer. You can also use it to perform a broad range of other workgroup management functions. It can deploy preferences either before or after users begin to work with Communicator because you can manage individual preferences in a .plist file without disrupting other settings in the same file. Workgroup Manager does not deploy whole .plist files; instead, it updates .plist files on users' computers by writing individual key/value pairs.When you customize preferences, the customized .plist files are stored in the home folder of the administrator account that you used to log in for that session. When you are ready to deploy these customized preferences, you must log in with that same administrator account because Workgroup Manager deploys the preference settings of the administrator who is currently logged in.For information about Workgroup Manager, see Client Management in the Mac OS X Server area of the Apple Web site (www.apple.com/server). For detailed information about managing preferences with Workgroup Manager, see the Mac OS X Server User Management documentation available for download from the Apple Web site (www.apple.com/server/documentation).

Deploying preferences by using Apple Remote Desktop

You can create a special .pkg file specifically to deploy preferences. You can use Apple Remote Desktop to deploy this .pkg file to the home folders on users' computers. Or, you can make the file available for users to copy from a file server.

For information about Apple Remote Desktop, see Apple Remote Desktop Administrator's Guideon the Apple Web site at http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop.