NZMac.com - Supporting the New Zealand Mac community

Setting the correct date format for all applications

There is a quirk with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) that means that not all programs will pick up the appropriate way to display a date if you switch from a date format setting such U.S. (month/day/year) to the New Zealand format (day/month/year).

In the image you can see below, the dates on the email program (1) are still in U.S. format, despite the fact that we have gone into System Preferences and the International panel, changed to the New Zealand region (2) and closed and opened the program again. The problem is hinted at in the warning that you can see (2) that indicates that only Unicode-compliant applications will pick up these settings and that all other applications will still use the last region setting that was used.

There are two ways that you can fix this. First, is to set the region to "Australia". This will make sure that the dates are displayed in the appropriate way (2) after you have made the changed, closed and then opened the program.

The second way is actually just a continuation of this approach and is really only necessary if you don't like the setting being "Australia", as it will have little impact on the actual running of the machine. Change the region setting to "Australia" and then change it to "New Zealand". That way, global settings with pick up the "Australia" settings first and Unicode-compliant applications will pick up the "New Zealand" option after that.

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Invert your screen to greyscale

Press 'Apple' and 'option' and 'ctrl' and '8'

Usefulness? Limited! But it's certainly fun. May be helpful if you want to take notes on your laptop in a dark lecture theatre.One potential use is that the screen is easier to read in low light, low screen power setting if it is set to greyscale. This will probably also help you to save battery power if you are using a Powerbook. It's also easier on your eyes.

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