MenuCalendarClock gives you a cornucopia of calendaring features right in your menubar, such as displaying your iCal or Entourage events in a pop-up “pocket calendar” view.

Why doesn’t System Preferences > Date & Time allow us to show the date in the menubar? I know that we can click on the time to reveal the date in the pop-up menu, but I’d like to see it at all times in the menubar.

There’s actually a little-known trick for displaying the date in your menubar. Go into System Preferences > International, click the Customize button for Dates, and arrange the date elements exactly how you’d like them to appear in your menubar. Then, use your mouse to highlight all of your date elements and copy them to your clipboard. Then click OK. Next, click the Customize button for Times, choose Medium from the pop-up menu, and paste in your date elements wherever you want them to appear. Now your date will appear next to your time in the menubar!

For even more flexibility and functionality, check out the elegant utility MenuCalendarClock (free for basic features, $19.95 for advanced features, www.objectpark.net). Not only does MenuCalendarClock let you customize your date and time in the menubar any way you’d like, but it also gives you a pop-up “pocket calendar” that displays your calendar events and to-do items from iCal or Entourage.