Which plist is 'Text & Language' settings stored?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Which plist is 'Text & Language' settings stored?

Apples Developers in all their infinite wisdom have made changes to the way 'Text & Language' settings are configured in Mountain Lion, in my opinion, for the worse.

They have unified the settings pretty much in line with the way iOS4 was written.

The problem:

I want a Computer and iPhone that has everything in the English language.

But if I set the region settings to 'Malaysia', because that's where I live, Apple believes that it would be great to see the time/calendar in the Malay language.

Well....I don't, and they don't give me the choice.

My system preferences were carried over from Lion prior to upgrading to Mountain Lion, where Malaysia regional settings continued to display time/calendar in English and I want to get that back, however, now that I've selected 'Malay' > 'Malaysia' from the region settings in Mountain Lion, there's no turning back.

The only think I can think of is to recover the plist from a time-machine backup, but don't know which plist the Text & Language settings are stored in.

Can anyone point me to the correct plist?

I wish Apple hadn't made this stupid change to OS X 10.8 and iOS4++

Calendar and Time should be in the system language.

Our neighbour, Singapore (same makeup of population, Malay, Chinese, Tamil, Other) have English calendar and time when region settings are set to Singapore. Why couldn't Apple get it right for Malaysia?

So many Malaysian colleagues of mine using iPhones have their region settings to either UK or US because they don't like the way Malaysia's region settings are defined. I'm guessing users of Mountain Lion will be doing the same thing.

I love Apple's products, but this is just one little thing that is actually so annoying.

Many thanks for any help

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Sep 26, 2012 4:18 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,766 points

Sep 26, 2012 6:03 AM in response to jlsteed

You can add Malay to the Language list using the Edit button, but I don't think it will help your particular issue.

Many people have problems getting an English version of their preferred Region. See if this earlier discussion helps:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3877449?answerId=18385798022#18385798022

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Answer 2

LousyFool

Level 4

2,678 points

Sep 26, 2012 4:59 AM in response to jlsteed

I don't understand, maybe:

In System Preferences, Language & Text...

...under Language, you can move English to the top of the list. So then everything in system and apps is English, provided the apps have English localization.

...under Text, you can select a specific spelling, independently.

...under Region, you can select a region, but of course you only select a regional FORMAT, so naturally, if you pick Malaysia, you get Malaysian format. So, in your case you better pick a "more English style" region. See, if you were German and preferred to see German date and number formats, you'd select that no matter where you live.

E.g. I am German, live in Singapore, but speak English, and my Mac always did - and continues to do - everything I want it to: English is the main language in system and apps, as region I chose Singapore to start with (not because I live here but because I want the Singaporean date and currency view), so I get "English everything" and in the basic format I need or want, but I customized the "Times" view to get rid of AM/PM and have 24hr format instead, all in the Gregorian calendar.

Analog, you could pick the basic regional format you prefer (like U.S., UK, or Australia), then customize e.g. Numbers and Currency to match Ringgits.

No problem, and independent on wherever you really are, the time zone you're in, etc etc.

...and independent also on what keyboard layout you're using and specifying under Input Sources.

So, the key is (a) picking the right basic (regional) format for your needs, then (b) customizing it where required for where you live, e.g. currency. Done.

Yes, your colleagues are doing it right, and AFAIK it's been like this in OS X at least since 10.4...

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Answer 3

jlsteed Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 26, 2012 5:57 AM in response to LousyFool

Hi, thanks for the response.

I understand what you've said, and yes, I selected UK as the base region to get the calendar/time format the way Malaysians use, but I don't agree with Apple's decision to override the language settings. It's a poor assumption.

English is at the top of my language list, and 'Malay' is nowhere to be seen in the list.

iOS is worse in that it defaults google's search engine to the Region settings, which I've had to set to 'UK', so I always have to search using google.co.uk instead of my preferred google.com.my

I'm just looking for a way to roll back the preferences to a previous version.

I set up my Macbook Pro Retina as a new computer with 10.7 and the region setting for Malaysia was just 'Malaysia', instead of 10.8's options of 'Malay' > 'Malaysia' or 'Brunei'.

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Answer 4

LousyFool

Level 4

2,678 points

Sep 26, 2012 6:14 AM in response to jlsteed

If they tried to produce and list all possible regions with all possible languages, guess where that'd end up. Instead it's simple by thinking "the other way around":

Again, choose the region not by where you live but what regional format (and language) you want. And again, just customize it then according to what the place you live in requires you as e.g. currency. A few clicks later, and you're good to go.

This being all independent from system language or keyboard settings, the only truly relevant "regional" choice you'll make is the time zone in accordance with where you are. No matter if that's temporarily or for good, everything else will be your choice, easily customizable, and it stays that way. Simple. Beautiful. Just think "computer", not "me". 😉

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,871 points

Sep 26, 2012 12:31 PM in response to jlsteed

If I understand you correctly, the only thing that should be set to Malaysia is the location in the Date & Time preference pane. That will put you in the right time zone. Everything else should be English.

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Answer 6

Oct 28, 2013 1:50 AM in response to jlsteed

Even now in iOS 7, when you set region format to Malaysia, the date & time still display in Malay format. What jlsteed want is display date & time in English format.

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