Working with permissions

[Ian Dixon <zippller optonline net>]

I don't know if this is standard, but on my system, (RH8.0) permissions 
are shown in mnemonic format. Is it possible to display permissions in 
an octal format as the default? If this can be done what command would 
be issued to enable a display change between the two?

Thanks to anyone that can help with my further linux education :-)
Ian