. Date & Time Your Mac's conception of what time it is can be very important. Every file you createor save is stamped with this time | . Date Time Your Mac s conception of what time it is can be very important. Every file you createor save is stamped with this time and every email you send or receive is marked with this time. As you might expect setting your Mac s clock is what the Date Time pane is all about. . Date Time Tab Click the Date Time tab. If your Mac is online turn on Set date time automatically and be done with it. Your Mac set sits own clock by consulting a highly accurate scientific clock on the Internet. No need to worry about Daylight Saving Time either the time servers take that into account. Tip If you have a full-time Internet connection cable modem or DSL for example you may as well leave this checkbox turned on so your Mac s clock is always correct. If you connect to the Internet by modem however turn off the checkbox so your Mac won t keep trying to dial spontaneously at all hours of the night. If you re not online and have no prospect of getting there you can also set the date and time manually. To change the month day or year you can click the digit that needs changing and then either a type a new number or b click the little arrow buttons. Press the Tab key to highlight the next number. You can also specify the day of the month by clicking a date on the minicalendar. To set the time of day use the same technique or for more geeky fun you can set the time by dragging the hour minute or second hands on the analog clock. Finally click Save. If you get carried away with dragging the clock hands around and lose track of the real time click the Revert button to restore the panel settings. GEM IN THE ROUGH Your Free Time-Difference Calculator You can use the Time Zone tab of Date Time to calculate the exact time difference between any two points on earth. To do this you must have the Time Zone pane open and your menu bar clock turned on and set to View as Digital. See the discussion of the menu bar clock in this chapter. To calculate a time difference make a note of the
