Hi there I am really new to this, anyway I use a Mac and I have downloaded MAMP and I am trying to set up SS, I watched the video tutorial, which was very helpful, and I get to the SS Install page. I have done everything correctly including make all files in the htdocs folder writeable, and still I get the error:

Is the .htaccess file writeable? User '_www' needs to be able to write to this file:
/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/.htaccess

The file is currently owned by 'aarancasey'. There is no user-group that contains both the web-server user and the owner of this file. Change the ownership of the file, create a new group, or temporarily make the file writeable by everyone during the install process.

When I go to the htdocs folder to check, I can't find the .htaccess file to make the changes, I know it's probably something super stupid, but I need to know it's driving me bonkers!!!

Please help

If you use MAMP on 10.5, you should set the "Run Appache/MySQL server asuser" to your account, not the recommended "www/mysql" user.

As for the hidden .htaccess file you should enable in your editor to see hidden files and then set the permissions to read/write by your account.

When you deploy the site on a public accesible site set the permisions to the web server or read only.

Hrvoje