Date and Time

Date and Time
Mac Tip#40/30-Jan-2002

Your computer needs to be able to tell the time. When you save a file or send an email it’s useful for it to have the correct time and date attached to it. And anyway, the little clock in the menu bar would be rather annoying if it just showed some random time.

Traditionally on the Mac you have always been able to set the date and time from the Control Panel, but now under OS X there are no control panels. Instead, if you use OS X you need to go to the System Preferences.

To check or set the date and time on any recent Mac do this:

Go to the Apple menu and choose either Control Panels or System Preferences … . Now double click the Date and Time Control Panel or System Preference pane.

There are several settings which work together and you need to ensure that all of them are set correctly.

First your computer needs to know which part of the world you’re in, then it needs to know the current date and time. Skip down to the Set Time Zone … (OS 9 and earlier) button and click it or in OS X click the Time Zone tab.

OS 9: If you live in New Zealand press the letter W to jump down the list of cities so you can see Wellington and select that. If you’re in another part of the world scroll around to find the closest city to you in the same timezone. Then click OK. Decide whether or not the Summertime box should be marked.

OS X: Click on the map in the area where you live and then choose your location from the pop-up menu. Note that the name of your timezone will be written on the left of the map and will display a sun icon if you’re currently in Summertime.

OS 9: Now go up to the Date section and click on the Date Formats … button. Use the Region pop-up to choose the types of dates you use. We Kiwis need to choose Australian, but US, British or German might be more suitable for you. Look at the other options if you like and then click OK when you’re finished.

Now having chosen the type of date you can enter the correct date. Click on the leftmost number and type the correct number for that position. In New Zealand this would be the day, in the US it would be the month. Now press the Tab key to move to the middle number and enter the correct information. Finally press the Tab key again and correct the rightmost number. You don’t have to do anything special to “finish” this.

OS X: Click on the Date and Time tab. Beside the name of the month click the left arrow to go to earlier months or the right arrow to go to later months. Do the same to set the year. Then click on the correct date in the calendar.

OS 9: Now click on the Time Formats … button. Again, choose the Region which is appropriate for you and select 12 or 24 hour clock. Look at the other options if you like then click OK. Now set the correct time in the same way you set the correct date.

OS 9: Once you have all the correct settings simply close the Control Panel.

OS X: Look at the Current Time section. To set the correct time click on the leftmost number and type the correct number for that position (hours). Now press the Tab key to move to the middle number (minutes) and enter the correct information. Finally press the Tab key again and correct the rightmost number (seconds). Click the Save button to save your changes.

OS X: To set your preferences about which region’s settings you prefer, 12 vs 24 hour clock etc go to the International pane of the System Preferences. Click on the Date tab or the Time tab and choose your region and other settings. When you’ve finished, just close the window.