How can I convert currency on my Mac OS X system?

There is a better way, and don't call me Shirley. :-)

No, seriously, you're already using the tool that can make this sort of conversion easy: Calculator. It's far more powerful than you realize and precious few people have ever dug around and found out the true power of this free Mac application.

The key is to look at all the menu options, not just think of the calculator as just another widget. Check out the "View" menu, for example, and you'll learn that the calculator actually has three very different and powerful skins.

Basic:

Scientific:

and Programmer:

More to the point, check out the options on the Convert menu:

The "Currency..." option is what you seek, but notice the very last two lines of this menu, showing when the currency rates were last updated (back in January of 2005!) and giving an easy option for getting up-to-date values to replace the historical data.

Choose "Update Currency Conversion Rates" and you'll get a small status window for a second or two:

Then you'll get an update that gives you just a hint of how many currencies the program actually understands:

Click for full-size image

Impressive, eh?

Now, let's imagine for a minute that you're on the plane flying back from a trip to Malta -- you'd been looking for some black bird statue or something -- and you find that you're filling in that old expense report and need to figure out how much in US dollars your 175 Maltese lira per night hotel room actually cost.

Easily done. Enter 175 on the calculator, then choose "Convert" --> "Currency..." and select the existing and target currencies from the pop-up menu:

Click "OK" and you'll instantly be informed that your 175 Maltese lira room cost an impressive $522.69 per night. I hope they had some nice shampoo for that sort of nightly rate, personally!

Anyway, I encourage you to dig around in the Calculator program and learn just how powerful it is with conversions and the like. If you're a programmer or scientist, the alternate views are terrific too. I'm just waiting for a "financial" view to help with my own calculations.