Linux Mint: How To Configure Formats For Displaying Numbers, Dates and Times
Around the world, different countries have different ways of formatting numbers, dates, and times. Configuring your computer to use your preferred formatting is a useful part of setting up your computer.
In Linux Mint, the main way to change these settings is in the language settings. To manage these settings, press the Super key, type “Languages” and press Enter.
Tip: The “Super” key is the name many Linux distributions use to refer to the Windows key or the Apple “Command” key, avoiding any risk of trademark issues.
Press the Super key, type “Languages” and press Enter.
In the language settings, you can configure Linux Mint to follow your country’s standard number formatting by selecting your country from the “Region” list. If you also select your country for “Time Format”, Mint will use your country’s standard date and time formatting.
Tip: If your country is not listed in these lists, you need to click “Install / Remove Languages” at the bottom of the page. To read our full guide on how to add a language pack,
Select your country in the “Region” and “Time format” settings for your country’s default standard format system.
You may want to use the 12-hour or 24-hour time format or display seconds on your clock, even if this is not allowed in your country. To manage these settings, press the Super key, type “Date and Time” and press Enter. In the date and time settings, click the “Use 24h clock” slider to switch between 12- and 24-hour time. You can also toggle the clock showing seconds by toggling the “Show Seconds” slider.
You can choose between 12- and 24-hour time formats and whether or not to display seconds.
Completely custom date and time formatting
If you want to further customize the appearance of the clock, you need to right-click on the clock/calendar applet in the lower right corner and then click “Configure”. In the calendar settings, click the “Use custom date format” slider to “On”, then click “Show date format syntax information”. On the web page that opens, configure the desired appearance of the clock, then copy the string in the “Format” field and paste it into the “Date format” field in the calendar settings.
You can completely customize the clock format if you want, although this only applies to the clock/calendar applet.
