Using Spotlight to Search System Preferences

Setting System Time and Date

Various aspects of the date and time are specified in the Date & Time pane of System Preferences.

Date & Time

In the Date & Time section of the Date & Time pane, you actually set the date and time. If your computer gets time from a network time server, you don't need to set the time, but you do need to set the server. Select one of Apple's network time servers or provide an address for another one. You can also access the International pane from here to set date and time formats. Figure 8.26 shows the Date & Time section. Note that if you receive your time setting from a network time server, you might have trouble when your machine boots up if it can't find the network time server.

Figure 8.26. The current date and time are set in the Date & Time section of the Date & Time pane.

Time Zone

The Time Zone section, shown in Figure 8.27, is where the time zone is set. You just click on your approximate area on the map, and select a nearby city from the pop-up window. If you don't like scrolling through the list of cities, you can also type in nearby cities. If a city is recognized, the time zone information is filled in and the time changes to the time for that city. This method can be useful if you are having trouble determining what the correct time zone is.

Figure 8.27. Select your time zone in the Time Zone section of the Date & Time pane.

Clock

Figure 8.28 shows the Clock section, where you set specifics about displaying and announcing date and time. You can choose to have date and time displayed. If you choose this option, you can select various ways they are displayed. The date and time can be displayed in the menu bar or in a window. If you choose to display date and time in a window, you can set the window's transparency using the Transparency slider. You can also choose whether the display is digital or analog. If you choose a digital display, you can select various options for how it is displayed.

Figure 8.28. Preferences involving displaying and announcing date and time are set in the Clock section of the Date & Time pane.

In this section, you can also choose to have the time announced, and you can select an interval of on the hour, half hour, or quarter hour for the announcement, as well as an announcement voice. For the voice, you can select the default voice or various other voices. You can set a custom rate and volume for the voice and play the settings until you find something you like.