Setting the time format isn't sticking

Simpler to buy MENU CALENDAR CLOCK through OBJECT PARK SOFTWARE (~$20);
it is localized and is always available in the menu bar; it also
links with iCal (auto) and allows multiple ways to set-up date and time
and whatever.

Bertrand Morin

On Wed, 27 Feb 2008, Kim Gammelgård wrote:

> Den 26/02/2008 kl. 23.25 skrev David Clark:
>
> > I'm trying to set my digital clock on this MBP to read "Sat Jan 5,
> > 2008", described in the International Settings as "medium" format,
> > and it just won't stick. That is, as soon as I click out of the
> > settings, it goes back to what I guess is the default, "Sat 6:34 AM"
> > and does not display the date.
>
> That is probably a permission issue where you for some reason do not
> have permission to write to the proper plist-file. I have had similar
> issues on systems upgraded from 10.4 to 10.5 and the best cure is to
> reset the users permissions using the Leopard DVD.

As indicated in the other email I sent, I've seen this behavior on
machines that shipped with Leopard "right out of the box", i.e. they
were doing it right from the initial setup screens. I've also seen it
after the machine had been running for a few hours, seemingly normally
at first, but then going in to this state.

Standard fixes like repair permissions, remove preferences, and remove
caches didn't help; nor did reinstalling the system software, including
erasing and reinstalling, which really should have worked.

I unfortunately never came up with a good explanation, or a good fix.
You may get relief from the 10.5.2 update, possibly; otherwise, my best
guess is that it's some kind of system bug that you've tripped, and
maybe it would be best to file a bug report with Apple.
 
--
Chris Devers

On Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008, at 9:32 AM, Kim Gammelgård wrote:

> That is probably a permission issue where you for some reason do not
> have permission to write to the proper plist-file. I have had similar
> issues on systems upgraded from 10.4 to 10.5 and the best cure is to
> reset the users permissions using the Leopard DVD.

I'm still running Tiger and I've repaired permissions several times
as part of other activities. Still, nothing happens.

        In past versions of Mac OS X I found that occasionally the "custom"
date format that I wanted (yyyy-mm-dd) would not stick unless I selected
some other country's standard format, then closed the system preferences
application, then reopened it, then selected my correct country (Canada)
and then set the custom date. It seemed like the preference file needed to
be "cleaned out" with a new country before the custom settings could be
entered successfully.


--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

Is Dave Clark asking about displaying the date in his menu bar? I've never found a way to do that, using the settings that come with Mac OS X. I just tried again on two different desktop computers, one running 10.4.11, and the other 10.5.2. No go.

If others are doing this successfully, please post the steps. I've only done it using a separate utility, such as the Menu Calendar Clock already mentioned.

Derek Roff

On Mar 7, 2008, at 8:30 AM, derek wrote:

> Is Dave Clark asking about displaying the date in his menu bar?
> I've never found a way to do that, using the settings that come
> with Mac OS X. I just tried again on two different desktop
> computers, one running 10.4.11, and the other 10.5.2. No go.
>
> If others are doing this successfully, please post the steps. I've
> only done it using a separate utility, such as the Menu Calendar
> Clock already mentioned.
>
> Derek Roff
>


Hi Derek,

I don't know if this is what you are asking but once you have the
time on the menu bar [System Preference -> Date/Time -> Clock & click
show date and time] simply click on it and you will get a drop down
menu which gives day of week and date - month day and year. If format
isn't what you would like you can change in International Preferences
[easily reached by System Preference -> Date/Time -> Date Time then
click button in lower right International Preferences]. From there
click on format.

Another alternative still using System is to have a little calendar
page up on the screen - for me it takes too much real estate on an
iBook and does not allow 24 hour clock. To do this open System
Preference -> Date/Time -> Clock and click on the radio button for
window - this will give day of week, month, date and time.

I am using OS 10.4.11 on a iBook.

HTH,

Jean

On 7-Mar-2008, at 06:30, derek wrote:

> Is Dave Clark asking about displaying the date in his menu bar?

The date is only shown when you click the time in the menu bar.
AFAIK, there is no way using just the System Preferences to put the
date ON the menubar. The day of the week? Yes.

I use iStats Menu

I have posted a picture of my date setup on my computer at:http://picasaweb.google.com/wr3negade/TidbitsQuestion (click on the picture to make it larger). I am running Tiger and it took forever to figure this out. It's still not perfect because it messes up the time format in ical but I can live with that. If this is what you are looking for you can email me at: wrenswabash.edu and I will try to recreate what I did.

On Mar 7, 2008, at 12:51 PM, LewisGmail wrote:

> The date is only shown when you click the time in the menu bar.
> AFAIK, there is no way using just the System Preferences to put the
> date ON the menubar. The day of the week? Yes.

Actually, there is,...

http://lifehacker.com/software/mac-tip/display-the-date-on-the-
menubar-316029.php

http://creativebits.org/mac_os_x/date_and_time_in_the_menubar

http://www.macinstruct.com/node/53

...but the hacks that are floating about on the Web for how to do so
using the International System Preferences pane can have unwanted
side effects in the Finder and in Mail.

Instead, I recommend:

MagiCal (free)
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/magical

Randy B. Singer • Mac OS X Routine Maintenance • http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

>> Is Dave Clark asking about displaying the date in his menu bar?
>
> The date is only shown when you click the time in the menu bar.
> AFAIK, there is no way using just the System Preferences to put the
> date ON the menubar. The day of the week? Yes.
>
> I use iStats Menu

Still cannot get international settings to work. It will not show date
no matter what I do.

Dave Clark

Voice from the left field bleachers:

If you need the date visible in the menubar, you're way too dependent
on your computer.

("Want" of course is another matter.)

   --John

Using Tiger 10.4.11, I've set my date/time in the menu bar to read "Sat 3/8 | 7:18A" and it sticks. The reason for sparsity is that I'm presently using a 15" monitor on a Mini so the menu bar real estate is a resource worth conserving.

The | divider is intended for my eye to quickly resolve the differences between adjacent digits represent date and hour. [The '|' is uppercase backslash, not an 'I'.]

I deleted the trailing 'M' because in my view it is redundant. An 'A' or a 'P' after the mm placeholder is always sufficient in this day and age, and I tend to follow that practice everywhere. You can edit the AM and PM flags in System Prefs/International/Formats/Times/Customize. There are fields that specify how to map 'Before Noon:' and 'After Noon:' Just delete the 'M' in each field and click OK.

To add the date to the menu bar takes some fooling around. IIRC, I selected Long in the 'Show:' pull-down menu. Then edit the long, rectangular data field immediately below. To get the date, I manually typed 'mm/dd' to start the data field, added 'space' | 'space' for appearance sake, then deleted the space between the 'mm' and 'P'.

Clicking on OK should stick this data field in your menu bar, at least until the next OS update. My recollection of the steps I followed my be a bit fuzzy, so if the above does not work for you, keep fooling around until something does stick.

YMMV

John

On 3/8/08 3:58 AM, "Randy B. Singer" <randymacattorney.com> wrote:

> Instead, I recommend:
>
> MagiCal (free)
> http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/magical

Still has problems with Leopard.

--
Diane

On Mar 8, 2008, at 358AM, wrens wrote:

I have posted a picture of my date setup on my computer at:http://picasaweb.google.com/wr3negade/TidbitsQuestion (click on the picture
to make it larger). I am running Tiger and it took forever to figure
this out. It's still not perfect because it messes up the time format
in ical but I can live with that. If this is what you are looking for
you can email me at: wrenswabash.edu and I will try to recreate what
I did.



You can set the date in the menu bar easily using an application
named MagiCal.
It's simple and modifiable.

On Mar 8, 2008, at 10:35 PM, Diane Ross wrote:

> On 3/8/08 3:58 AM, "Randy B. Singer" <randymacattorney.com> wrote:
>
>> Instead, I recommend:
>>
>> MagiCal (free)
>> http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/magical
>
> Still has problems with Leopard.

Download the older version, as they suggest on their Web site.

Randy B. Singer • Mac OS X Routine Maintenance • http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

This may be a slight variation on the original post, but it's been several OS
and I believe several xBooks since I've been able to see AM/PM on my menubar
clock.

The Clock tab of the Date & Time prefs panel has the "Show AM/PM" checkbox
disabled, regardless of what other settings there are.

Is this a general known issue - or linked to UK international format - or is
it some personal curse that I've been trailing round with me through various
migrations and upgrades?

- Ben

>> Instead, I recommend:
>>
>> MagiCal (free)
>> http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/magical
>
> Still has problems with Leopard.

In Leopard, turn off "Set time automatically," and leave it off. Set the
time as needed. If you turn on automatic again, it may revert.


--
// Bob Perrey
// bperrey at sbcglobal dot net
// R. Travers Press

On 3/8/08 10:35 PM, 3/8/08, "Diane Ross" wrote:
>> Instead, I recommend:
>>
>> MagiCal (free)
>> http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/magical
>
> Still has problems with Leopard.

The current "final" version, 1.1, has an issue under Leopard where MagiCal
may crash when accessing its preferences dialog. However, the previous
version, 1.1a11, works well with Leopard and is available from the
developer's Web site; the developer recommends 1.1a11 for Leopard users
until an official Leopard-compatible version is finished. I've been using it
on three Macs running Leopard, and it works great.

On Mar 9, 2008, at 1:21 PM, Ben Rubinstein wrote:

> This may be a slight variation on the original post, but it's been
> several OS
> and I believe several xBooks since I've been able to see AM/PM on my
> menubar
> clock.
>
> The Clock tab of the Date & Time prefs panel has the "Show AM/PM"
> checkbox
> disabled, regardless of what other settings there are.
>
> Is this a general known issue - or linked to UK international format
> - or is
> it some personal curse that I've been trailing round with me through
> various
> migrations and upgrades?

I use a customized time format for the menubar clock, namely sensible
(24-hour) time. With that set, I'm allowed to check the display AM/PM
checkbox, but AM/PM doesn't display (and I wouldn't want it to,
anyhow). I also have seconds showing.

Are you showing 24-hour time in your clock?

   --John

On 10/3/08 10:40, johnbaxterlistsmac.com wrote:
> On Mar 9, 2008, at 1:21 PM, Ben Rubinstein wrote:
>>[snip]
>> The Clock tab of the Date & Time prefs panel has the "Show AM/PM"
>> checkbox
>> disabled, regardless of what other settings there are.
>[snip]
>
> Are you showing 24-hour time in your clock?


I switch it on, I switch it off, makes no odds; the AM/PM checkbox is never
enabled.

- Ben