Is there a way to create a simple keyboard shortcut for DATE?

If you don't find the fix for your problem you might try using a macro app. I use Keyboard Maestro for that and many, many more quick inserts of pre determined text, changing settings in apps and launching apps or documents.

KM may be overkill for just entering the current date but there are many macro app on the App Store from free to …… that should be able to do the job. Just search for "macro".

Using a macro app the shortcut would be available for all apps that take text.

Below is text I copy/pasted from an Apple tutorial regarding shortcuts.

"You can create keyboard shortcuts only for existing menu commands."

Imo, this is an unfortunate change made by Apple.

To my knowledge, it's never been any different. You can create keyboard shortcuts for Automator Quick Actions (née Services) and now Shortcuts. A Quick Action is likely what you used before as there was no command to enter the Date in the OS--maybe in an app. Pages has a Date & Time command that you could create a keyboard shortcut, but it outputs a full date string and doesn't have any customizations.

Searching back in time, I don't find any reference to a built-in function, but Devon Technologies had a suite of Word Services that could insert the date in various formats. Since it was a Service, you could create a keyboard shortcut for it.

They are available for free, here: https://www.devontechnologies.com/support/download

You must move the apps to the Applications folder for them to work.

That command+D keyboard shortcut may be reserved in certain applications such as the Finder, or Pages, and you cannot change that because applications have event listeners for certain keystrokes and those applications will intercept command+D for their own purposes, not for your goal of current date insertion.

You need a unique keyboard shortcut that achieves your goal without conflicting with already assigned keyboard shortcuts in Apple's Finder or other applications. Then, you need to determine the current date format that you want inserted, and the approach to do that. You don't need a third-party application for this purpose. Just a Quick Action or if on macOS Monterey or later, a Shortcut app.

What version of macOS do you have installed from Apple menu () : About This Mac, and what date format string do you want inserted?

Just use Shortcuts to create a Shortcut to suit your needs. You can't use Cmd-D as has already been explained. Cmd-opt-D works.

As with the first time you asked, I don't know why it doesn't work for you in Mail.

In the history of Services, there was a time where you had to select it once from the Services menu, then the shortcut worked thereafter. I haven't seen that problem since the advent of Shortcuts.

If you added the part about copying to the clipboard, try pasting just to see if it has run correctly and just didn't have a place to paste. If you can paste it into something after running it in Mail, then it is running, but doesn't seem to think there is a place to put it. You do have a new message open with the cursor in a text field (body).

Having thought about this a few moments more, did you choose a shortcut that is not in use by Mail?

You don't need to keep repeating yourself. The history is displayed in the thread.

I changed mine to ctrl-D and it works in the To field, but not the body. Quite strange.

Using Ctrl-D in the Body and trying to pasted does not work. I have the shortcut set to appear in the menu bar. Running it from there and then pasting in the body works.

Try some other shortcut combinations.

If you have it exactly as I have, try Pasting after running the shortcut.

However, the shortcut works for me in Mail.

Another spin on a Shortcut Date tool. Works in Pages and Mail on Sonoma 14.2.1.

Result of the keyboard shortcut here:

December 27, 2023