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koushik
Asked: 2010-08-04 06:20:18 +0800 CST

How to change the format of the date & time displayed in top panel?

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By default date and time is displayed by the clock applet on the top right of the gnome desktop in Ubuntu. For me this displays something like "Tue Aug 3, 19:45". I would like to change it to make the date terser and to include e.g., ISO week number - to something like 03/08-19:45-W31.2

Is there anyway I can specify a "format string" for how the date-time is displayed ?

indicator

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer
    1. Open gconf-editor by pressing Alt+F2 and typing gconf-editor
    2. Navigate to apps -> panel -> applets.
    3. Look for your applet. In my case it is called applet_3, on another computer its name is clock_0. Maybe a good way is to search (Strg+f or for US keyboards Ctrl+f, activate both fields in the search menu) for ClockApplet (case must match).
    4. Go to prefs. Change the value of format to custom and change custom_format to whatever you like. The syntax comes from strftime().
    5. The format will immediately change if you enter some values.

    Note: This option will not work in 10.10's netbook edition, see this question for a solution.

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  2. You might also be interested in looking at some examples other people have done with the same process. See: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2009/11/gnome-panel-clock-themes.html I used the first one and couldn't be happier, but now that you mentioned week number, I need that too.

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  3. Here is my custom time format.... <sup> <span font_desc="Droid Sans 14" color="green"> %a %b %d </span> <span font_desc="Droid Sans 20" weight="Bold" color="green" >%l:%M %p</span></sup> ....Works well with a dark panel color. Change the color code to suit your needs.

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