You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

System-wide Insert Date & Time

I need to be able to insert both the date and time into applications system-wide. There was, at one time, a System Service that allowed for that action. It appears to be gone now and I really would like to have that option back. I've tried some of the Automator suggestions, none of which worked. I'm not a coder, so the Scripts option appears to be the only other way to do it, but I've no idea how to craft a script that would accomplish what I'm after. Anyone have suggestions or comments? I'm amazed that Apple chose to remove that built-in system service.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12.3)

Posted on Nov 28, 2018 10:23 AM

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

67,888 points

Posted on Nov 28, 2018 10:51 AM

You mean you need to add the current date and time, in textual form, into some applications? I think I can help - and, yes, Automator seems to be ideal for this.

Hahaha... it works!!!

Here it is. All it takes is a single Action, to run a little Applescript.

1) In Automator, create a new "Quick Action".

2) Add a single "Run Applescript" action, like this:

3) Save it - I called it "type the date", you can call it whatever you like.

4) In System Preferences->Keyboard->Shortcuts->Services, locate the "type the date" service, and add a shortcut. I used "command-control-option-D", again you can use anything you like.

That's it. I switched to Mail, pressed the shortcut. The very first time, a dialog appeared telling me that Mail wanted to control Automator. I allowed.

It just works. Type command-control-option-D, and it types the date and time.

You will get the same dialog when you use it with an application for the first time only.

Wednesday, 28 November 2018 at 18:50:00

Guess what... I did not type the line above 😝

You also need to have any such application allowed to "control your computer" in System Preferences->Security & Privacy->Accessibility.

If not, you will get a "... is not allowed to send keystrokes" alert.

View in context

System-wide Insert Date & Time

Similar questions