OS X: Add the Date to the Menu Bar
Showing both date and time in OS X menu bar
I was recently reviewing Chris Shifflet’s most recent post of his ‘Top X List of Mac OS X Annoyances’ and he mentioned that ‘The Clock Sucks’ as number VIII in his list. For those who read MacAddict, this month has a section on how to change this format from the Terminal. To me, this is not the easiest option to display both time and date in the menu bar.
Disclaimer: A few months back I came across this tip from another site, but cannot remember the source. If someone remembers seeing this elsewhere please send me the source so I can give proper credit where credit is due.
In just a few steps, you can make it so that your clock will also display the current date (in an array of formats that you can choose). The end goal is to get it to look like this:
Step 1
By either pressing ‘COMMAND+SHIFT+A’ and opening your applications (or if you have it on your dock) you can select ‘System Preferences’. Open this and navigate to ‘International’ (It is in the top menu selection under ‘Personal’)
Step 2
Once inside of International, select the middle menu titled ‘Formats’ and then select the ‘Customize’ button inside of the Dates
Step 3
Inside of this menu you are able to select several different formats (Short, Medium, Long, and Full). For this exercise I chose Medium to get the date format I wanted. Select the format inside of the text box (COMMAND+A to select all then COMMAND+C to copy the selection).
Step 4
Now that you have copied the format you selected go back to the International->Formats pane. Move into the next section titled ‘Times’ and then select the ‘Customize’ button inside of this section.
Step 5
This menu is very familiar to the previous menu for Date. You have the same options (Short, Medium, Long, and Full). The only one we need to select here is ‘MEDIUM’ as this is the date that is used for the top right menu bar. Place your cursor anywhere after the time format that is already and then hit ‘COMMAND+V’ to paste your previous selection from the Date category and then select ‘OK’.
And that’s it, go back to see other items or close your preferences and you will see the changes made in your menu bar. I know this made things much easier for me as I am always looking for the date and don’t want to open iCal for a quick glance look. You can play around with it to get it to display just what you want.
Any questions please email nate [at] theklaibers.com.
I hope this helps!
16 Comments Add your comment
Nikolas Lessmann July 30th, 2006
If you can tell me how to do this at win xp, you're godlike ;-)
Manny October 20th, 2006
I tried this time & date trick and it doesn't work for me. It does not change in the menu bar.
Holger April 11th, 2007
I am sorry to say: it did not work for me either (OS X 10.4.9). I even tried to restart the finder - no effect...
GaryP April 11th, 2007
That is the best little 'hack' ever! I've always wanted OS X to show date and time in the menu bar, but never realised it was this easy.
Peg April 11th, 2007
Cannot get it to work for me either. OS X 10.4.9.
Nate Klaiber April 11th, 2007
I'll go ahead and take a look this evening for those of you who are having troubles. I haven't had troubles on any of my machines, but I will test a few at work.
Thanks...
Peg April 11th, 2007
Just got it to work. I restarted and redid the instructions as above and it works now. Who knows what the problem was...thanks, Nate!
Jonathan Elliott May 5th, 2007
Excellent hack! Thanks for the information!
Tom May 22nd, 2007
Thanks!
It worked when I pasted 'after' the original entry;
it did not work when I pasted 'before' the original entry.
nate June 12th, 2007
dude, i had been looking for this for so long. i had started displaying time as a window on my desktop. thanks!!!
Chris June 26th, 2007
I tried it on my old iBook and on my MacBook and have not been able to get it to work. I even tried pasting the addition after the time, saving it, moving it where I wanted it and then saving again. Still nothing.
Nate Klaiber June 27th, 2007
@Chris
Is it a newer macbook? I bought one in May and this works on mine. What is the OS version?
Steve June 27th, 2007
I got it to work by changing LONG instead of MEDIUM. The problem is that although it works great on the menubar, it messes up DAYLITE, a program I use for calendar and contacts. Daylite uses the system format so I get the WHOLE format in windows I should only have the time. I can't figure out how to use SHORT for some applications and LONG for others.
michael July 2nd, 2007
worked fine for me in 10.4.9 on a g5 imac and 10.4.10 on a MacBook Pro. I was also able to add a few spaces and a "|" between the time & date for a bit more visual clarity.
great tip! thanks!
Endx Oz. July 4th, 2007
my operating system is windows 2000 prof and not mac.
how do i display date on the task bar or on the desktop
kerri carter July 1st, 2008
Excellent! My experience is that you must use the 'medium' format. I tried to keep the 'short' formats and it did not work. I didn't try the other formats available once 'medium' worked. Thank you!