User's Help Guide:

Localization Setting (Updated: 24 January 2012)

Return to User’s Guide Menu for System Preferences

Information: The Localization Setting of the Control Panel allows the Administrator to define the default localization settings for the GIL Support Services website.  Here the Administrator can define things such as the time zone, time formatting, and Control Panel language.

Note:  Each member of the GIL Support Services web site can override these default settings by changing their own My Account settings.

  • Server Time Zone: This setting lets you specify the time zone where your server is located. ExpressionEngine uses native PHP functions to deal with dates and times, which base their output on the timezone of the server. If you do not set this preference so that it correctly reflects the location of your server it may cause problems with your dates and times. If you are not sure where you server is located please ask your hosting provider.
  • Server Offset (in minutes): In addition to setting the server time zone above, you may also further fine-tune the server time settings by specifying a time offset (in minutes). Add minutes by typing in the number and subtract minutes by preceding the number with a minus sign. ex: -15. Generally this is unnecessary unless your server clock is slightly off.
  • Default Time Formatting: You may specify whether you would like the default time formatting to follow either the “United States” or “European” conventions.
  • Daylight Saving Time: Here you can specify whether the server is currently observing Daylight Saving Time. If and when your server changes its observance, you will need to update this setting.
  • Honor the Daylight Saving Time setting associated with each weblog entry?: Typically you will set this preference to yes. Every time you submit a new entry, the DST setting at the time you submitted the entry will be saved with the entry data. This permits each entry to be offset individually based on its own DST setting.