[crazyjester900]

Hi Guys,

Is there anyway you can Password protect a single folder on a Mac?

It's a comp in my workplace so there are a few important docs that need to remain private????

Thank You

Cheers

[wholikespotatoes]

Sure someone will provide a answer more suited but you can easily create passworded disk images which could contain the folders you need to remain private.

Just open Disk Utility > New Image and select an encryption option.

[ClockWork]

As Potatoes has said, that's probably the best way.

Open your Macintosh HD, open Applications folder, open Utilities folder and open Disk Utility.

Then click once on the New Image icon at the top-center of the Disk Utility window, Save as: A Name you Want, select where you want it saved, select a Volume Size which fits the size of your folder or folders, keep the Volume Format to: Mac OS Extended (Journaled), select an Encryption of 128-bit AES encryption (recommended), No partition map, change the Image Format to sparse disk image and click the Create button.

Enter your Password.
Then Verify your Password, and un-tick the Remember password in keychain box.

Click OK.

A white Disk Image will appear on your Desktop, and now you can drag your folder(s) into it to copy them over. Then Eject the Disk Image.

From that point on, opening the .dmg will require your special Password.

Note: Don't forget that Password as there'd no going back if you do!

Hope that works.

[Phunky]

Truecrypt is another option
You create a file which is encrypted using truecrypt
Then you mount the file using truecrypt
It appears as a normal directory once opened, and you put in all your private stuff
Then dismount in truecrypt and its safe once again

You can also move the file around to a PC and work with it there as well as long as the encrypted volume is FAT formatted

Theres tons of other useful stuff, like dummy passwords (a encrypted volume within the outer volume) for those who are particularly paranoid, and encryption of whole drives (e.g. usb drives)

And truecrypt is free to boot

[cartz]

I'd also recommend TrueCrypt

I doubt you'd find a better, more universal solution.

[crazyjester900]

Thanks for your answers guys.

Cheers

[Quamen]

I use and love Knox (Knox—Simply secure encryption and backup for Macintosh computers) for creating encrypted disk images.

[Darwiniandude]

I use encrypted disk images, works very well and it's part of the OS so it's on all macs.

You can even put Applications on an encrypted disk image, then drag the app into the dock. When you click the icon in the dock, it will try to mount the image and ask for your password, enter it and the app runs. Just eject the image afterwards.