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You even get a bonus -- a second clock that's just as cute.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

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Little OS X secrets: A free desktop clock


August 11, 2004


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, The Post-Standard

   In my Windows days, I enjoyed customizing the way my PC looked. I had special wallpaper and fancy colors for everything on the screen.
   When I switched to a G4 running Apple's Macintosh OS X operating system, I gladly left behind all the troubles of Windows. But I also missed the personal touches, and I wondered if my days as a twiddler and tweaker were over.
   But I didn't have to worry. I've found dozens of ways to add little touches to OS X. Customizing a modern Mac is easy. You just have to know where to look.
   So this week I'm starting an occasional series of columns on personalizing your OS X Macintosh. I'll try to stick to changes that don't cost anything.
   One of the coolest personal touches I've added to my G4 is a floating calendar-clock. It shows the time in large numbers and displays the date, including the day of the week, in what looks like a tear-off sheet of white paper.
   You might have seen it before. It's from Apple. The first version of this calendar-clock appeared on Steve Job's NeXT computer many years ago. After Jobs rejoined Apple and started the OS X project, his software engineers brought back the NeXT calendar-clock. They put it in OS X. Every modern Mac with OS X has it.
   But most OS X users have never seen it. It's the alternate clock built into the "Date & Time" preferences panel. Normally, OS X displays a text clock in the upper right corner of your screen. You're supposed to choose between that clock and the alternate clock. The regular clock takes up no room on your screen. The alternate calendar-clock is cute but takes up space, so Apple made it a little-used option.
   But if you're willing to do some digging through the OS X file structure, you can have the calendar-clock on your screen while your Mac still shows the standard text clock at the top. You're not stuck with an either-or proposition. And you even get a bonus -- another kind of clock that's just as cute, which you can switch to if you get tired of the tear-off date calendar-clock. (That clock looks just like the kind my classmates and I saw in our schoolrooms every day 50 years ago. It's round and has a dial and hands just like any old-fashioned wall clock.)
   Here's how to get either of those clocks on your screen without disturbing the text clock at the top. Follow the instructions carefully. And please note that you won't be able to do this if you don't have "Admin" privileges.
   Double click on the main hard drive icon on your desktop, then open the System folder. Open the Library folder inside the System folder.
   Open the Core Services folder. Then open the Menu Extras folder. Look for "Clock.menu." That's a "package" file -- one that acts like a folder sometimes and like a file sometimes. Ctrl-click on "Clock.menu" and click "Show Package Contents." Open the Contents folder and then the Resources folder.
   You'll see a lot of folders and a few files. Drag the file called "WindowClock" out onto your desktop. You can then put it into the main Applications folder if you want. It's the alternate clock. Double click the copy you made to run it. Use the Date & Time panel in System Preferences to toggle it from the calendar-clock to the wall clock.
   To turn the clock off, toggle the Preferences setting from Menu Bar to Window and back.