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Time/Date in Menu Bar
#42214 10/21/16 03:14 PM
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Hope someone can help.

I am trying to set the Date/Time on the Menu Bar to show the date and times as the following:

Friday, October 21, 2016 9:00 AM.

I go to "System Preferences/Date & Time/Open Language & Region/Advanced/Dates" to tweak the look I want.

I can highlight the FULL option, but I do not know how to set it. The instructions are to "drag" the choice, BUT to where? When I try to drag the box to the bar, the selection just slides back to the box. No matter what I click on/select, the changes do not take place for the DATE.

Obviously, I am missing something about the procedure. Is there a special knack for setting this?


blush


Many thanks,
MG2009
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
MG2009 #42216 10/21/16 03:20 PM
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You don't say which System version you are using, but in osMac 12 when I go to the "Date & Time" System Preference, I can get what you want (although it is shown as Fri Oct 21…) just by checking the options "Show…in menu bar" and under "Date Options" checking "Show day of the week" and "Show date". It automatically appears in the Menu Bar; no dragging required.


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
Ira L #42217 10/21/16 03:42 PM
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" . . . I can get what you want (although it is shown as Fri Oct 21…) . . . "
------------------------

Sorry, but that is NOT what I want. I want the day of the week to be spelled out in FULL . . . like it shows in the System Preferences "option" box (not the abbreviated style of the LONG or MEDIUM options).

My question was/is: How do I get the FULL version to show on the Menu Bar?


P.S. I am using SIERRA.


Many thanks,
MG2009
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
MG2009 #42234 10/22/16 02:46 PM
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Originally Posted By: MG2009
" . . . I can get what you want (although it is shown as Fri Oct 21…) . . . "
------------------------

Sorry, but that is NOT what I want. I want the day of the week to be spelled out in FULL . . . like it shows in the System Preferences "option" box (not the abbreviated style of the LONG or MEDIUM options).

My question was/is: How do I get the FULL version to show on the Menu Bar?


P.S. I am using SIERRA.


Ahh, I see, you are looking in "Languages and Regions". Yes, I have the same problem. You can set the display to show long formats but it does not stick on the Menu Bar. crazy


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
Ira L #42235 10/22/16 06:12 PM
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I am running MacOS 10.12.1 beta 4 or 5 and as far as I can tell the date & Time display on the menu bar is independent of the settings for date and time in Preferences Language & Region. On the theory that might be a hidden preference setting, I also looked in the long time standby freeware utility for OS X configuration settings TinkerTool 6, its more robust shareware sibling TinkerTool System 5, and the everything you ever wanted to configure but didn't know how paid utility MacPilot 8 and came up empty handed 👎.

If someone were to spend enough time digging through Apple's Developer documentation they might find it, but I don't have the patience to do that.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
joemikeb #42236 10/22/16 06:28 PM
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Thanks for your labour of love! With all that effort, if you have not found the answer then I doubt anyone else will have much luck either. grin

Odd that Apple would show the unabbreviated style for the days of the week/months of the year in the FULL format, but then not show that option in the menu line.

Well, at least I haven't completely lost all my marbles . . . yet. blush




Many thanks,
MG2009
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
MG2009 #42237 10/22/16 08:00 PM
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I don't know about labour of love, its more like terminal curiosity.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
joemikeb #42238 10/22/16 09:11 PM
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"Terminal" curiosity. Cute.


Many thanks,
MG2009
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
joemikeb #42239 10/22/16 10:50 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
...its more like terminal curiosity.

Not to be any less curious, have you got any idea what purpose the setting under Language & Region serves?

Changing it doesn't even affect the day/date in the clock dropdown.

It must be there for some reason. confused


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
artie505 #42241 10/22/16 11:14 PM
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There are a variety of different apps that pick up the date and/or time for inclusion in documents, meta data for images, etc. and will use the Full, Long, Medium, or Short form. To see this in action, open a document in Pages then on either the menu bar or the Tool bar select Insert âž­ Date & Time.

Last edited by joemikeb; 10/22/16 11:16 PM. Reason: typo

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
joemikeb #42242 10/22/16 11:56 PM
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Thanks.

It seems like it would make more sense to have all time & date settings in one location or to at least make it clear why they aren't, but...


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In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
artie505 #42244 10/23/16 03:41 PM
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I assume (yes I know the danger of assumptions) the clock function in the menu bar is buried in some core service somewhere and tying the display to the Date & Time settings is or was at the bottom of some software engineer's ToDo list and there is always something ahead of it.

However in looking around for an answer to this question, I discovered an interesting new menu bar feature in Sierra that I hadn't even thought of looking for. The right hand menu bar elements have always been fixed in place by Apple, but in Sierra Control+Click+Drag can reorder all of the elements on the right end of the menu bar including date & time but excluding Siri and Notifications. (After all these years with the date & time being toward the far right it is going to take me a while to adjust to where I have placed it now.) But I am finding it helpful to group the icons on that side of the menu bar in groups that make sense to me.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
joemikeb #42246 10/23/16 04:50 PM
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" . . . Control+Click+Drag. . ."




Thanks for the tip. Makes me wonder: Was this trick available in earlier versions of OS X, too, and I just didn't know?

P.S. For me, however, it is COMMAND+Click+Drag.


Many thanks,
MG2009
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
joemikeb #42247 10/23/16 05:00 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
However in looking around for an answer to this question, I discovered an interesting new menu bar feature in Sierra that I hadn't even thought of looking for. The right hand menu bar elements have always been fixed in place by Apple, but in Sierra Control+Click+Drag can reorder all of the elements on the right end of the menu bar including date & time but excluding Siri and Notifications. (After all these years with the date & time being toward the far right it is going to take me a while to adjust to where I have placed it now.) But I am finding it helpful to group the icons on that side of the menu bar in groups that make sense to me.

This is an interesting feature, yes, but the only new part is the ability to move third party icons. I've been reordering date and time, script menu, volume, character viewer, and other menu extras for many years by command dragging them. I'm betting you've done so as well, but just fell out of the habit a while back. wink



dkmarsh—member, FineTunedMac Co-op Board of Directors
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
dkmarsh #42248 10/23/16 05:41 PM
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" . . . the ability to move third party icons."

-----------------------------------------

Ahhhh.

That explains why I could shuffle some icons around and not others. It just hadn't occurred to me that the "others" were all 3rd-party applications. Duh!


Many thanks,
MG2009
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
dkmarsh #42249 10/23/16 08:34 PM
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Originally Posted By: dkmarsh
...the...new part is the ability to move third party icons.

Wow!

It's about time. cool

Thanks for the clarification. smile

Last edited by artie505; 10/24/16 02:26 PM. Reason: Better word

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
joemikeb #42252 10/24/16 10:19 AM
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Great tip, Joe, thanks!


Harv
27" i7 iMac (10.13.6), iPhone Xs Max (12.1)

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
joemikeb #42267 10/24/16 04:02 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I discovered an interesting new menu bar feature in Sierra that I hadn't even thought of looking for. The right hand menu bar elements have always been fixed in place by Apple, but in Sierra Control+Click+Drag can reorder all of the elements on the right end of the menu bar including date & time but excluding Siri and Notifications.

That's been user-adjustable for quite some time now.

As for the date thing, that only changes the output of a specific set of API calls that apps can either use or do their own thing, so only apps that try to display the time the way the user has requested it are going to do so. Everybody else can play their own banjo.

LONG time ago I recall seeing someone post WHERE the "format string" was stored. And from there you could go in and edit it to anything you wanted. It's just using the DATE command from terminal, which is extremely robust. Sorry I don't recall where that was, and I'd wager it's moved by now.

I use this one for time stamping log entries:

command: date "+%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S"

outputs: 2016/10/24 12:00:03

the default format:

date (equivalent to date "+%a %b %d %T %Z %Y")
Mon Oct 24 12:00:32 CDT 2016


man date for (lots) more information, and for the geeks: date "+%s"


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
artie505 #42449 11/02/16 10:15 AM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: dkmarsh
...the...new part is the ability to move third party icons.

Wow!

It's about time. cool

Thanks for the clarification. smile

It would be a wonderful feature if my positioning survived a restart, but I've got to juggle my icons every time. frown


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
artie505 #42471 11/02/16 06:13 PM
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" . . . but I've got to juggle my icons every time . . . "

-------------------------------------------------

Odd. Upon starting up, mine stay where I placed them before the last shutdown or restart. These will only move if I do so manually using COMMAND and the mouse cursor.

Re: Time/Date in Menu Bar
MG2009 #42478 11/02/16 09:11 PM
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Originally Posted By: MG2009
" . . . but I've got to juggle my icons every time . . . "

-------------------------------------------------

Odd. Upon starting up, mine stay where I placed them before the last shutdown or restart. These will only move if I do so manually using COMMAND and the mouse cursor.

Clarification: My Apple menulets still turn up where I want them; it's only my 3rd party items that don't hold their position after a restart.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

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