How do I insert custom date and time with a keyboard shortcut in Pages?

Pages is not a Word clone, and I can assure you Microsoft had no hand in its creation.

Time to learn Automator. I just created a single-action Automator service that when you access it from the Pages : Services menu, it just inserts the current 24-hr (hh:mm:ss) time into the document at your insertion point. I have tied a control-T keyboard shortcut to it. Before you start the following, save your work, and quit Pages.

1. Launchpad : Other : Automator
   1. New document : Service : Choose
   2. Library : Utilities : Run Shell Script
      1. Drag and drop this action to the right into the larger workflow window
      2. It should be configured like so (click to enlarge)
         
      3. That is the UNIX date command configured to just return the time.
      4. Save with a meaningful name (e.g. 24hr-Time)
      5. Quit Automator
2. In System Preferences : Keyboard : Shortcut : Services
   1. Scroll down until you see your service is already checked and active.
   2. Click in the area where you see None, and then type the control and t characters. Press return to set it.
   3. Quit System Preferences
3. In Pages, without needing to select any text, you can either select control-T, or Pages menu : Services : 24hr-Time. Either will deposit the time string into your insertion point.

Hi DrS'

In Pages, check Services in the Pages menu, where you may find these three choices:

They provide dates or dates and times in these formats:

Monday, August 1, 2016 at 5:15:22 PM

2016-08-01

2016-08-01, 5:15:02 PM

Regards,

Barry

You must have an older version of WordService, as the current version 2.8.1 (OS X App Store) prefaces all of their services as:

• WordService: Insert Long Date
• WordService: Insert Long Date & Time
• WordService: Insert Short Date
• WordService: Insert Short Date & Time
• WordService: Insert Time

Since it is just 5am here, I cannot test if their Insert Time does 24hr time. These particular services would need to be enabled in System Preferences : Keyboard panel : Shortcuts : Services, as they are not by default.

These services must be something that you wrote, because with a date field selected in Pages '09 v4.3, or Pages v5.6.2 document, the services that you show are not present, or present in System Preferences : Keyboard : Shortcuts : Services. OS X 10.11.6.

Thanks for that, Viking. I did wonder if they were supplied or I had picked them up elsewhere.

(Just checked: They're included in Devon Wordservice, freeware from Devon Technologies (a very useful package).)

They are listed in the Keyboard shortcuts section of System Prefs here (along with Long Date), also 10.11.6.

They are available in the Pages menu in Pages 5.6, in Numbers 3.6 (only if the insertion point is in a Text box, a Shape or in a page header or page footer when Print view is active. Checking further afield indicates they may be available in any Text environment (in Apple software—they don't show up in WP docs in either LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice).

Regards,

Barry

disclosure: I get no monetary or other direct benefit from supplying a link to the Devon Technologies site.

B