It’s the little things that sometimes drive people crazy. This is true for Macworld readers wondering how to change the date and time in the menu bar, a feature that has been available for decades on the Mac. In macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple has moved customization options from the Clock tab in the Date & Time preferences panel to System settings > Dock and Menu Bar.
With the increase in the number of items managed in the Dock and the menu bar, it made sense for Apple to move all of these settings into one place. However, in almost all other menu bar items, you will find a checkbox or other settings in the corresponding settings panel. as well as on the Dock & Menu Bar.
Don’t bother. Just open Dock and Menu Bar panel, click Watch under Menu bar only in the list on the left and you can set it up the same way as always: use 24 hour format, flash time separators for every second, etc.
Bonus of this new location? A preview of all your options is shown in the top right corner of the Clock panel and all other menu bar and Control Center options. This is a great compact visualization, although you can see the changes take effect instantly in the menu bar.
Of course, this will change again with the release later this year of macOS 13 Ventura! In this next version, you will find the Clock and Menu Bar options in Settings > Control centerwhich now includes all elements of the Control Center as well as Menu bar items only. Click Watch settings to the right of the Clock label to access familiar options. preview? He is no more.
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