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International Settings

Killerbob

Killerbob

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 25, 2008
1,948
732
OK, so I have 10.5.2 set up pretty much how I want it, but I can't get the language settings to work just right:

I live in Switzerland, but run all in English, and I am trying to setup the International settings just right. In "Languages" I have "English" at the top, but in the "Formats" tab it all goes wrong. In the "Region" there is no "Switzerland (English)" possibility. I can select "Switzerland (German)", but then a lot of small things are wrong, for instance the time format is then set to German. Of course I want to use the Swiss standards, but in English.

How do I get a Switzerland/English combination setup?

KB
 
BTW - the german occurrences of weekdays, months etc. are in in iCal, Entourage, and the task-bar. Also, I am sure at one point I did have Switzerland (English) selected, but I can't get that back.
 
Talking about the international setting, is the OS X retail software package same for all international markets? OS X lets you choose the primary language at the beginning of the installation. Is that how Apple lets customers "localize" OS X?
 
I had the same problem, with there being no setting for Japan (English). i.e. I live in Japan but want English settings for dates but Japanese settings for currency.

I remembered that I had it correct when I first set up my computer but somehow lost it and couldn't select it.

But I solved the solution, only problem being, I can't remember what I exactly did.

I think I created a new user. I put the region to Japan and made sure the language was English. Then I set a new region and just copied everything over.

I would try it out but I am scared off changing my region as I will lose this setting and am not 100% sure of what I did.

If it works, can you post back and let people know.

Fingers crossed for you.
 
moot said:
I had the same problem, with there being no setting for Japan (English). i.e. I live in Japan but want English settings for dates but Japanese settings for currency.

I remembered that I had it correct when I first set up my computer but somehow lost it and couldn't select it.

But I solved the solution, only problem being, I can't remember what I exactly did.

I think I created a new user. I put the region to Japan and made sure the language was English. Then I set a new region and just copied everything over.

I would try it out but I am scared off changing my region as I will lose this setting and am not 100% sure of what I did.

If it works, can you post back and let people know.

Fingers crossed for you.
Click to expand...

Many thanks. I think you've got a winner there. Can you however try it out and delve into more detail because I'm a bit dense and also new to this.
 
The long method!

OK, as you asked, I tried it out. It works.

1) Open "System Preferences" (in the dock or App folder).

2) Select "International"

3) Select the "Formats" tab

4) Change your region to where you live. For me "Japan (Japanese)"

5) Select the "Language" tab

6) Make sure that the language you want to work in is at the top of the list i.e English for me.

7) "Show all" system preferences.

8) Select " Accounts"

9) Unlock the padlock at the bottom of the window. You need an administrator password to do this. Probably your default password.

10) Click the "+" mark just above the padlock and make a new account. If you plan on making it your main one, make sure to make it an "Administrator" account.

11) Once it is made, log into the account and check that it is working as you want with the languages and everything.

That is the easy bit and is as far I did to test this out.

The next bit is the hassle as you want to move all your stuff across from the old account.

Are you sure you want to go to this much hassle just to get the Region format right?

There might be a simpler way to do this using the terminal or something, but I don't know. Try doing a search on google.

But knowing Apple, there might be no way - it is just an annoying bug and you have to do this long method of creating a new account and moving stuff across.

If you still want to go ahead and are not sure about how to move all yoiur stuff accross, please post and I or someone will instruct you with the next step. It involves chainging permissions and stuff or maybe stting up "Sharing". But everything needs to move from your old "Home folder" to your new one.

Hope this helps.
 
Maybe this works on an existing account too

- Open a terminal window
- Type: defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleLocale "en_DE" (or in your case: defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleLocale "en_CH") and hit enter
- Logout and login to your account

Now you should have set your region settings back to: Switzerland (English)

Hope this helps.

If you want to customize your number format setting, see http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080403055310704
 
bbear42, YOU ROCK!

The terminal command worked flawlessly. THANK YOU.

KB
 
bbear42 said:
- Open a terminal window
- Type: defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleLocale "en_DE" (or in your case: defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleLocale "en_CH") and hit enter
- Logout and login to your account

Now you should have set your region settings back to: Switzerland (English)

Hope this helps.

If you want to customize your number format setting, see http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080403055310704
Click to expand...

omg thank you bear. I've been going crazy over this problem for months now and couldn't find a solution on the internet anywhere except for now. you've made my month!
 
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