CLOX 8 is an easy to use app providing analog and digital clocks for tracking the time in different timezones. You can choose which timezones are displayed. A daylight map shows where it is night and day around the world and integrated timezone information and news updates are provided to help you be sure your clocks are accurate.
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To change the timezone of a clock: Select 'Zones' from the menu bar at the top of the clock display. The Zone panel will open and a number will appear next to each clock. Each clock is set individually. The numbered buttons let you select the clock to set. For each clock you can choose a timezone from the list and enter a caption as you wish. If a location you choose is currently on daylight saving time (DST)* you should select "dst (+ 1 hr)". For the rest of the year, this should be set to "standard time". Places which don't use DST remain on standard time all year round.
If you need to look-up a timezone or DST rule, click the button marked 'tz info' to search for a location. Type at least the first four letters of the name of a country, state or capital city, then click 'find' to display matching information. Click 'find' again to show any additional matches. Please note that because local governments can sometimes change timezone rules unexpectedly, perhaps affecting a small region or even a single town or city, you shouldn't rely solely on one source for timezone information, for critical purposes it is a good idea to also check with a local source to confirm the correct time and summer-time arrangements for a specific locality.
When setting a timezone, always remember that places west of the Greenwich Meridian (e.g. America) are generally behind UTC (GMT) so they have 'minus' or 'negative' timezones. Conversely, places east of the Greenwich Meridian (e.g. Asia) have positive timezones, ahead of UTC. For example New York uses -5 not +5. Tokyo uses +9 not -9.
Any changes you make to timezones, captions or any other settings are saved automatically.
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LOCAL Zone
When a clock is set to "LOCAL" it will show your local time as given by your operating system. To change a clock that is currently set to a different zone to local time, first select "LOCAL" from the top of the timezone list, then change the caption as desired. To ensure that the new local clock setting is properly fixed select one of the other numbered clock buttons before you close the Zone panel.
If the local time seems to be wrong, check the Date and Time settings in the Control Panel of your operating system.
Unlike previous versions of CLOX, CLOX 8 does not automatically adjust your system time because most modern operating systems will now do this as standard. For this to work properly you must ensure that your system's local timezone setting is correct. If your operating system clock and timezone settings are wrong all the clocks will be wrong!
UTC / GMT Zone
UTC and GMT mean the same thing. Setting a clock caption to GMT or UTC will automatically set that clock to UTC (GMT) zone. It is not possible to make other settings for this zone. If a clock is set to GMT or UTC and you want to set it to another timezone (even one that uses GMT for part of the year) you must first change the caption.
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Analog / Digital Clocks
Choose to display between one and ten clocks. You can also select different clock sizes and choose analog or digital clocks, or both (A+D). Checking or un-checking the box marked 's' toggles the second hands.
In accordance with the most prevalent international conventions the analog clocks always display 'twelve hour time' with AM/PM indicated. The digital clocks always show 'twenty four hour time' (sometimes called 'military time' in the USA). This fixed configuration in CLOX gives you the best of both worlds as well as ensuring simplicity and consistency, reducing risk of error.
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Daylight Map and Calendar
The map options allow you to alter the size and position of the daylight map, or you can choose to not display the daylight map at all. There is also a checkbox to overlay the date and local and UTC time on top of the map. The language used to display the date on the map will depend on your operating system.
With the 'calendar' box checked a calendar shows your current local date. The calendar can be displayed centered below the clocks, or with the 'map/calendar top left' checkbox checked you can relocate both the map and calendar positions to the top left of the display.
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*DST
Daylight saving time is used in many parts of the world to make the most of the extra daylight hours in summer. Also known as 'DST', 'daylight time' or 'summer time', daylight saving simply means putting clocks one hour forward in spring and back to 'standard time' in the autumn/fall (that's spring-forward, fall-back). You can look-up the timezone and DST details for different parts of the world by clicking 'tz info' button in the Zone panel. If a clock is set to 'LOCAL' (rather than a number) your local time will be displayed. Any daylight saving time adjustments for your "LOCAL" clock are managed by your operating system settings. You won't need to make the DST selection or change the local timezone in CLOX at all. Wherever you are in the world, if your operating system time is set and working properly then a clock set to LOCAL will show the correct local time and all your other clocks will have the correct basis from which to give you the accurate time for any timezone.
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UTC (which, although the letters are not in the same order, stands for Coordinated Universal Time) is also called GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). These abbreviations refer to the world's standard or 'central' timezone.
UTC (GMT) is never adjusted for daylight saving at all. However, if you are setting a clock for a place such as England which uses UTC (GMT) in the winter but moves the clocks forward for the summer then you should select the UTC zone but also select "dst +1 hr" when the clocks change in the spring. (In Britain DST is usually referred to as 'British Summer Time' or BST.) When setting a clock for a zone which uses DST like this it is better not to set the caption to GMT or UTC because you will not be able to add the hour for DST without changing the caption first. Remember also that you should always set your local clock to 'LOCAL', even if your local zone is actually on UTC for part of the year.