I searched online and everybody answers is Crt+; to insert date.
While that works in Calc, it definitely doesn’t work in my Writer.
I can go Insert->Field->Date, but that is not what I want, I just want Today’s date as Text, not field.
Is there a shortcut that nobody on the web has discoverer, or can I create a shortcut to just insert a Static today’s date?
There is no factory-defined shortcut for inserting a date in Writer. Ctrl+; you mention is one defined in Calc.
You can add a shortcut for Insert>Field>Date in Writer with Tools>Customize (menu Preferences under MacOS).
Note there are two date variants: one for the current date (therefore changing when you reopen the document) and one “fixed” showing the date when the field was inserted.
Using the fixed variant is probably what you are looking for since the date is “frozen” for ever. It then does not matter if it is a field or plain text. If you really insist on plain text, just after inserting the date, copy or cut it and Edit>Paste Special>Unformatted Text.
However, since you seem to be looking for minimal number of keystrokes, this is probably not worth it because a non-updating field is just as good.
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You are correct in all your assumptions, I just want to reduce mouse clicks/keystrokes.
I cannot find the ‘variants’, so I created the Ctrl+; shortcut using: Insert->Date. Tomorrow I will know if it changes…
Quoting @Spiv: “…I just want Today’s date as Text, not field.” (Added by editing?)
There is no predefined action to this effect.
As far as I can see you need user code to implement it.
User code can do it in two ways then:
-1- Convert already inserted date filed to ordinary text (I dare call it “stringify”).
-2- Insert the date as text directly.
A serious disadvantage of the first way is that date fields when inserted without explicit usage of the dialog, always are formatted the way that’s defined as default for the applicable locale (language). These default formats all (afaik) are bad: They generally seem to use 2-digtit-year, any stubborn order of the parts, and fancy separators. They this way do everything needed to mess up communication beyond a small region (like the USA) and to create misunderstandings.
For this wider field of date and date-time handling in Writer documents, I wrote code some time ago. It is contained in the attached document as working Basic routines in the document’s library, and as plain text as well. The document starts with explanations and examples, however.
You may take from it what you need for a solution to a more specialized task.
Please consider my modest solicitation: Don’t use my code to create/maintain one of the wide-spread silly “localized” formats. Only use ISO 8601 extended for dates (if not under serious threat) amd one of the common formats HH:MM or HH:MM:SS for TimeOfDay.
The mentioned reasonable formats are used as default in the attached document.
Harmonize_Stringify_InsertFormattedDateTimeFields_4.odt
An extremely simplified solution for this special request is given here:
insertCurrentDateAsString.odt