NZMac.com - Supporting the New Zealand Mac community

How do I make Microsoft Office display dates in d/m/y format?

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Office gets its date format from from the International preferences of Mac OS X but it does not appear to accept date settings where you have customised beyond some of the default country settings and in this case, goes back to a better known country.

In the first instance then, go to System Preferences --> International --> Formats and set the country to "Australia" if you are happy with that.

Make sure you quit System Preferences at that point.

If you really do want to have the country set as New Zealand, next go back to the settings and change it to "New Zealand".

You may see the text that says "This region can only be used by Unicode applications. WorldScript applications will use the last compatible region".

What this means is that Office is falling back to the previous setting because it doesn't understand Unicode so it doesn't understand New Zealand. Because your previous setting (Australia) is now a d/m/y country this won't annoy you so much.
Last Updated Monday, 10 March 2008

Setting the correct date format for all applications

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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.

Last Updated Monday, 10 March 2008

How do I get free SMS notifications from iCal?

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This tip requires a small initial outlay for a piece of software that allows for syncing of iCal with Google calendars, but then allows you to receive free SMS texts of events in your iCal calendars.

You will need the following things:

1. iCal....free with all macs.
2. A Google account or an NZMac.com email account. Also free.
3. A copy of Busymac's Busy Sync...$25-30 NZ depending on the exchange rate.

Fortunately for New Zealand Google provides free SMS notifications of reminders in google calendar (as long as you are with Vodafone)

1. Download and install BusySync. This runs as a preference pane in the background. Follow the instructions to sync your iCal calendars with Google Calendar.




2. There is a setting in BusySync that allows you to map reminders in iCal to SMS notifications in Google. Select that setting.




3. Go to Google Calendar and go to "Settings" and then "Mobile Setup". Follow the instructions there to verify your cell phone.




4. Marvel as your reminders in iCal are texted for free. Never miss an appointment again!

Bonuses

1. BusySync will also allow syncing of your calendars between macs in your house if you have a few, (you do need multiple copies unfortunately)
2. This is two way sync. Changing an event in Google is synced to iCal and vice versa. Great if you have a work computer that isn't your own.

 

Last Updated Friday, 25 April 2008