107. Adjust the Format of Numbers and Other Notations  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 25 Set the Time and Date
 SEE ALSO 108 Change the System's Language
107. Adjust the Format of Numbers and Other Notations 
If you're not in the United States, Mac OS X's default behaviors when it displays numbers or dates might appear odd. The operating system supports many different countries ' preferred notation formats, and lets you define your own as well (for instance, if you're a U.S. resident who prefers the metric system). Date, time, and number formats can all be changed in the International Preferences pane. | 1. | Open the International Preferences Open the System Preferences application (under the Apple menu); click the International icon to open the International Preferences pane. Click the Formats tab to open the page where you can configure the formats of dates, times, and numbers.  TIP The Customize buttons let you manually specify the formats for dates, times, and numbers to match your personal taste. If you prefer, however, you can choose a format profile that matches your country's standard usage from the Region drop-down list at the top of the Formats page of the International Preferences window. | | 2. | Configure Date Formats
Click the Customize button in the Dates section. The sheet that appears lets you control how a "long date" (using both full and abbreviated weekday and month names , such as Sunday, January 2, 2005 , and Sun, Jan 2, 2005 ) and a "short date" (such as 1/2/05 ) are displayed, as well as other lengths as called for by adjustable listings of dates in applications like the Finder.
To customize the date string format, there are a variety of blue ovals shown in the Date Elements box, each representing a meaningful part of the date string: Day of Week, Year, Week of Month , and so on (many of which are more obscurely used than others). Choose a general string style ( Short, Long, Full , and so on); then drag these blue ovals from the box into place in the sample string shown above the Date Elements box, and drop them into place wherever you want them to appear. To specify a separator character (such as a slash or hyphen), simply click where you want the separator and type the character you want. Most of the date elements also have a white down arrow that appears when you hover the mouse over the oval in the sample string; clicking this arrow shows you variants of the selected element, such as Jan or January , or 05 or 2005 . With all these options, you can mix and match styles however you wish, creating as standard or as custom a format as you want.
Arrange the date string as desired and click OK to go back to the International Preferences window.
| | 3. | Configure Time Formats
Click the Customize button in the Times section. In the sheet that appears, you can configure various aspects of how times are displayed beyond what can be configured in the Date & Time Preferences pane. For instance, you can choose whether noon and midnight appear as 12:00 or 0:00 ; you can have a leading zero placed before one-digit hours (such as 02:00 ); and you can enter your own suffixes instead of AM and PM .
The time string is defined in the same manner as the date string you manipulated in step 4: blue ovals representing time elements, which you can drag into place to develop a string format that suits your fancy. Use the Before Noon and After Noon text fields to specify what should appear when an identifier like AM or PM should appear.
Arrange the time string as desired and click OK to go back to the International Preferences window.
| | 4. | Choose Currency Format
Choose a currency format by name from the Currency pop-up menu. Nearly every conceivable currency format with a name is represented in the list.
| | 5. | Select Measurement Units
Back in the International Preferences window, use the Measurement Units drop-down list to specify your preferred measurement system ( U.S. or Metric ).
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