Web part to appear for some users only

Question

I have a SharePoint library containing lots of folders and files. Several people have permission to access. The majority use Windows and have access to the 'Open with Explorer' option. They can therefore download all the contents in one go. One person, however, uses a Mac computer, and the 'Open with Explorer' option is not available to them. How can this person download all contents in one go?

I've added a web part into the SharePoint library page. The web part contains a link to download a zip folder of all the contents. I need to ensure only the Mac user sees this link. Can a web part be visible for one user, and invisible to others?

Answer 1

You could create a group that contains this user, and specify the group in the "Target Audiences" field of your "Edit web part" menu. Thus only the members of your group will have access to the web part.

Ref: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Target-a-Web-Part-to-a-specific-audience-d4076339-dc25-48be-9a2b-ffafdf33e9d8

Note: I am not sure if you can set a user directly into target audiences, but if that's not available, you certainly can create a group.

Answer 2

If the user is on Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) or later, Finder's Go > Connect to Server will allow to map SP location. To target webpart to particular group of users, use audiences - see official doc, and a friendly step by step guide for 2010/2013/Online.