Feature Request: Insert Date ONLY button

[herdsothom]

Hi all,

A feature I use very frequently is the 'Insert Date Time' button on desktop.
Most of the time however, I do not need the 'Time' component of the DateTime.

It would be excellent to have a button to insert just the Date, or potentially even shift clicking the button inserts the date only?

I am happy to implement this request myself and raise a PR.
I'm first interested to know if there is appetite for this, and what the preferred solution is?

Thanks!

[roman_r_m]

Could be done as a plugin - would be much faster in terms of dev time.

[whitewall]

Hmm. I never knew I wanted that. Great idea. I never need the time.

[herdsothom]

Hmm, that sounds like a good first step.
Perhaps I start by implementing it as a plugin, and if there is appetite for it, could be consolidated into the base application. It can be a bit of a pain installing plugins for all these sorts of things

[herdsothom]

I've created a plugin for it!

Plugin: Insert Date

This plugin adds a button to the editor toolbar that, when pressed, inserts the current date into the editor. As described in this forum post, most of the time I use the existing 'Insert Date Time' button, I dont need the exact timestamp, and it is overkill. This plugin addresses that. Here is the repository: GitHub - herdsothom/joplin-insert-date And a link to the downloadable .jpl file: Release v1.0.0 · herdsothom/joplin-insert-date · GitHub I'll get it added to the official plugin reposit…

[whitewall]

Yay! That's great. Good on ya!

Any chance of a keyboard shortcut? In for a penny, in for a pound I say.

[herdsothom]

Yes, thats a good suggestion. Any preference for the shortcut?

[whitewall]

Is it possible to have it be a part of the built in shortcut system so users are able to re-assign it? I think the core time-date feature is ctrl shift t and I've re-assigned it as ctrl t since I wasn't using whatever ctrl t was.

Thanks!

[antoniopaolini]

To insert today's date we can also use templates.
For example
{{#custom_datetime}}YYYY-MM-DD{{/custom_datetime}}
It's more flexible, we can choose format and also there's a shortcut, CTRL-ALT-i

It would be useful if this plugin allowed to choose other dates as well.

[derikb]

Somehow I totally missed that insert date/time button and am thrilled it can be used in the note title. Thanks for pointing it out. I use dated title notes for a journal and this will save me some time starting entries.

[skim1124]

Yes, another vote for the option to enter YYYY-MM-DD or even just YY-MM-DD.

[duxswhatduxs]

A vote for MMMM d, yyyy?

[tessus]

@skim1124 @duxswhatduxs version 1.0.1 of the plugin takes the date time setting of Joplin.

[antoniopaolini]

With templates it is easy to select what do you want.
For example, you can do thinks like:

{{#custom_datetime}}YYYY-MM-DD - dddd{{/custom_datetime}}
{{#custom_datetime}}LLL{{/custom_datetime}}
{{#custom_datetime}}LLLL{{/custom_datetime}}
Week {{#custom_datetime}}W-E{{/custom_datetime}}
<u>{{#custom_datetime}}LLLL{{/custom_datetime}} — (__W{{#custom_datetime}}W{{/custom_datetime}}__)</u>

and get:

2021-02-21 - domenica
21 febbraio 2021 19:27
domenica 21 febbraio 2021 19:27
Week 7-7
<u>domenica 21 febbraio 2021 19:29 — (__W7__)</u>

The format came from moment.js, as said in the Joplin website.

[skim1124]

Ah, got it! Thanks.

[skim1124]

I took at a look at the note template page, but it's not clear to me how to use custom_datetime or moments.js. What would I have to do if I wanted to quickly insert YYMMDD (e.g. 210225 for Feb 25, 2021) in the editor pane or the title bar?

[antoniopaolini]

It's really easy. You have to make a template.

1. Go to menu "File -> Templates -> Open template directory"
2. Make a file date.md with this content:
   {{#customdatetime}}YYMMDD{{/customdatetime}}
3. Go to menu "File -> Template -> refresh templates"
4. Use the shortcut "CTRL+ALT +i" ("COMMAND +OPTION + i" on Mac) and select the template.
5. Done

[skim1124]

Thanks. I didn't realize it was so easy. But I think I had to edit it to be custom_datetime before I got it to work. Also, I had a hard time saving an .md file (as opposed to .txt file); finally had to use Typora.

And as far as I understand, the use of templates is limited to date/time related items?

[antoniopaolini]

Template:

You are wrong , it is really easy. You can do what I said and it's works.
This is the template you want.
data - Momentjs - YYMMDD.md (46 Bytes)

Moreover, for date/time you can use this sort of template, but you can do any template you want putting the text you want to insert in.
For example I use template for fast inserting style tags in my notes, (see the attached file)stile.md (90 Bytes)
Others example here: GitHub - WinkoErades/Joplin-note-taking-templates: Joplin note taking templates

---

moment.js:

What you need to know from moment.js is only the string format it accept. See tables under this paragraph: Moment.js | Docs

---

Edit .md files:

Last thing: edit md file does not require Typora (that also is a good markdown editor). A markdown file is a plain text file. You can edit it with notepad (or any plain text editor like VS Code, Vim, Notepad++, etc etc) and then save with the .md extension (if you save it ad .txt you can simply rename it and change the extension).

Hope this was useful.

[skim1124]

I should have been more clear. In the original instructions you gave me, it was {{#customdatetime}}YYMMDD{{/customdatetime}}

But that didn't work for me until I put in an underscore between custom and datetime: {{#custom_datetime}}YYMMDD{{/custom_datetime}}

Anyway, I appreciate all your expert help because I like to use YYMMDD universally to identify the date.