Week numbers in Mac OS X

I don’t know about other parts of the world, but here in Sweden many people talk about week numbers instead of dates. It drives me absolutely crazy since I never have a clue what the current week is. I wish people would just start using dates instead… but that will never happen, so I have to adapt somehow.

One way is to go to vecka.nu every time someone starts talking week numbers. It works, but it feels awkward to have to visit a website just to find out what week it is. Well, you don’t have to, at least not if you’re using a Mac (I have no idea about other systems).

  1. Open the Language & Text panel in System Preferences
  2. Choose the Formats tab
  3. Click Customize… in the Dates section
  4. Drag the Week of year tag to the Full format
  5. Add text before or after it. I use (week [Week of year tag]).
  6. Click OK and close System Preferences
  7. You can now see the current week number by clicking on the date/time in the menubar

I haven’t found a way to have the week number visible all the time, but this is better than having to go online.

Posted on April 7, 2011 in Mac, Productivity