System-wide Insert Date in number only format (YYYY/MM/DD) or similar

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SonyMiner Author

Level 1

8 points

System-wide Insert Date in number only format (YYYY/MM/DD) or similar

I found this by: Luis Sequeira1 User level: Level 8 (43,284 points)

script to run in automator a system service:

on run {input, parameters}

set thedate to (current date) as string

tell application "System Events"

keystroke thedate

end tell

end run

It works well to get the long date and time, you get a result like: lunes, 31 de mayo de 2021, 19:47:37 (Spanish in my case)

but I am looking to get a date stamp like the one you get in Filemaker when you press COMMAND + "-" In my case with my system date format I get 2021/05/31, may variate depending on system setup.

Any ideas on how create an apple script or Automator system service to get the short date format to paste in any document? Also I would add a ": " to the end of the date so the final pasted date is: "2021/05/31: "

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.4

Posted on May 31, 2021 11:04 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

VikingOSX

Community+ 2024

Level 10

111,707 points

May 31, 2021 1:04 PM in response to SonyMiner

You could just create an Automator Quick Action that receives no input from any application. Instead of a Run AppleScript action, use a Run Shell Script using Zsh or Bash:

date -j +"%Y/%m/%d" # outputs YYYY/MM/DD formatting

These formatting codes are found in the strftime(3) man page.

Save it with the name: DateStamp.

Looks like this (you will need to update the date formatting string):

In System Preferences > Keyboard panel > Shortcuts > Services panel, you locate this service and assign a non-conflicting keyboard shortcut to it. And then, anywhere you want that date stamp text inserted, you press that keyboard shortcut.

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