How are people inserting the date at the insertion point in iOS?
Generally speaking I use the Text Replacement feature of the keyboard for a couple of long strings (my email signature and the link to the mosaic program I use) but wondered what people do for a dynamic template.
I’d like to find a non subscription solution to the problem
You could use Shortcuts to put the date in the desired format on the clipboard, trigger it on iOS with an accessibility back tap (double/triple), and then paste in the result.
I’m not sure if you can reduce the two-step process any further for something dynamic.
But if you are using a specific app, then there may be other options. For example, you can have actions in many editors that allow you to insert things like the current date.
Just pop up a menu in your shortcut for the desired format. One extra step, but you are adding one extra level of choice and you have limited trigger options.
It displays the actual date and time in the menu to select from. Just add the custom formats you want to the text box and it will update the menu automatically.
I do something similar, only I invoke it via the iOS Share menu. I highlight the text just before the spot I want to insert the formatted date, and the shortcut is built to take the selected text, and construct a string that incorporates the selected text and the formatted date/time. Then I can just paste it, replacing the highlighted text.
I couldn’t figure a way to invoke the Share menu without having text selected. Otherwise it would be invoked without the highlighting step.