Want to insert a field that will show the date of the doc's printing.
In MS Word, this is known as 'insert print date'.
How to do so in Pages? Thanks.
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)
No version of Pages is a clone of MS Word. Consequently, field codes in general, and print date field code in particular — are not implemented in Pages.
One might be able to write an AppleScript solution that prints the document, and then inserts an appropriate date string into it.
You can define placeholder text in Pages v5.5.2 in any of the six header/footer sections. Think of it as a a field code that when you click on it the text you enter replaces the placeholder text using the same style. By example, I placed a combination of text and placeholder text in the lower left footer segment.
The text and the brackets were selected, and then Format ▸ Advanced ▸ Define as Placeholder Text. Also, because it is in the footer, it is replicated throughout the document. Although you could Insert > Date/Time into this placeholder text, automation may be preferred. I have chosen to use the same date/time style as MS Word uses in its print date field code. You can only change placeholder text programmatically with Pages and AppleScript on Yosemite. Once I run the AppleScript, all placeholder tags are replaced as shown in this image:
You could make this an Automator Service (e.g. run AppleScript action with no input, and output replacement is checked). One could assign a keyboard shortcut to this service too. One click printed date stamp and document sent to default printer.
The AppleScript (Yosemite only).
-------------------------------------------
property tagStr : "[print-date]"
--- used for testing ---
-- set f to POSIX path of ((path to desktop) as text) & "arg.pages"
-- set hf to POSIX filef as alias
--------------------
set printDate to "" as text
set theTags to {}
tell application "Pages"
activate
-- openhf
tell front document
set theTags to the tag of every placeholder text whose tag is equal to tagStr
-- Word print-date field code uses this 12-hour date/time format as mm/dd/YY 00:00 AM/PM
set printDate to do shell script ("/bin/date +'%D %l:%M %p'") as text
repeat with i from 1 to count of theseTags
set thisTag to itemi of theseTags
set (every placeholder text whose tag is thisTag) to printDate
end repeat
-- use your own System Preferences printer name string
tell application "Samsung ML-2950 Series (Sammy)"
activate
-- no print dialog
print front document without «class pdlg»
quit
end tell
end tell
-- close front documentsavingno
end tell
Errata:
repeat with i from 1 to count of theTags
set thisTag to item i of theTags
set (every placeholder text whose tag is thisTag) to printDate
end repeat
In Pages, how to insert a PRINT-DATE field into a doc.?
