local file question

[Richard Koch]

Tom,

I want to second Herbert Schulz' recommendation. MacTeX is configured so
your local files (which TeX Live always searches first) are in ~/Library/texmf.
You must create this texmf folder and its subfolders. 

Some users do not like this location because ~/Library is hidden
by the Finder. However there are easy ways to get there. If you hold down
the Option key while accessing the Finder's "Go" menu, an item appears
in the menu taking you to ~/Library.

If you decide to reconfigure, it will make OUR lives much more complicated
when you ask other questions, since the MacTeX team assumes that users
have the standard configuration. 

This even holds if you decide to abandon MacTeX and install in the future
using the TeX Live install script. That script offers several items with
default answers, which you can modify if you want. When the script sees
that you are on a Mac, it's default value for local files is ~/Library/texmf.

Richard Koch