Mac 101: get a floating clock on your screen saver
Welcome, once again, to Mac 101, TUAW's continuing series focusing on tips and tricks useful to new Mac users. Mac veterans might learn a thing or two along the way, but these tips are aimed squarely at our new Mac friends.Today's tip is all about knowing what time it is. If you're running Leopard you can have your Mac display the time when the screensaver is running.
Simply do the following:
- Launch System Preferences
- Click on 'Desktop & Screen Saver' in the 'Personal' row
- Choose 'Screen Saver'
You can't actually customize the look of the clock, but if you're looking for some customization (or you're not running Leopard yet) check out the Big Time screen saver. It lets you change the look of the clock displayed, as well as set alarms though you can't overlay the Big Time clock screen saver onto other screen savers.
Read on to see what the clock looks like on the Arabesque screen saver.

There you have it, simple and useful (much like myself).

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
shaun said 2:44PM on 4-02-2008
The position of the clock moves around the screen as time does too, clockwise suprisingly enough
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Eugene said 3:07PM on 4-02-2008
I may well be wrong, but wasn't this in Tiger too?
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Jak Logan said 3:14PM on 4-02-2008
you are right in that you were wrong... it's not in Tiger.
Eugene said 3:17PM on 4-02-2008
Well at least I was right about something :D
Nothing to see here, move along.
Luigi193 said 3:46PM on 4-02-2008
OBJECTION!
GANGREEN167 said 3:48PM on 4-02-2008
I'm running Leopard and I don't seem to have the "main screen only option"
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tico24 said 3:52PM on 4-02-2008
I believe that only appears when you're working with dual monitors.
GANGREEN167 said 4:06PM on 4-02-2008
Thanks!!!
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kidSyd said 5:35PM on 4-02-2008
See, now what would be cool is if someone created a digital clock screen saver that had the same effects as arabesque, now that would be something to comment about
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R2B2 said 8:03PM on 4-02-2008
Screw the clock, how about getting growl messages when the screensaver is running?
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j said 9:53PM on 4-02-2008
Fliqlo is where it's at if you want a clock screensaver. Since finding it a few years ago I haven't used any other screensaver.
http://www.9031.com/downloads/screensavers.html
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Vlad Gerasimov said 11:47PM on 4-02-2008
Hey! You can also have clock on your desktop showing precise time while you work. There is a free Mac software and bunch of designs at
http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaperclock/
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Artr said 8:14AM on 4-03-2008
It's also a very ugly clock
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Icesword said 4:38AM on 4-04-2008
http://MacOS2.com/
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Daniel said 3:19PM on 4-24-2008
heres a cool little customization fact i stumbled across:
you can have the clock on the screensaver display seconds, with or without am/pm, etc.
if you go into the International preference pane, and under Formats, and customize the time format - the "short" display - this will display different elements you want on the screensaver.
its pretty cool to have my RSS feed screensaver and floating clock with seconds. remember, International -> Formats -> Customize Time -> "Short"
btw, does anyone know how to adjust how many news articles the RSS feed screensaver displays? its only 4 by default, and id like to have it display more, like 10.
im running leopard, 10.5.2
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