Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History

relative dates and date adjustments.ftplugin

layout title description
default
Informal dates and date-change plugin
Use this plugin to enter or adjust dates using informal relative phrases

{{page.description}}

This plugin presents a small popup in which you can type or edit informal relative dates and date adjustments like today +7d, jul 14, tomorrow 2pm, or next month.

  • Default keyboard assignment ⌘⇧9 (⌘ + open bracket)
    • or ⌘⌥ '

You can enter date/times anywhere in your text. If your cursor is in or next to a tag (with or without a value),

cursor in or next to tag

this plugin (keyboard shortcut defaults to ⌘⌥ ') will automatically select any existing tag value, and create value brackets if none exist. As you type an informal phrase into the popup below your cursor, the phrased is translated into an absolute date (and optionally time) in the default yyyy-mm-dd [HH:MM] format

B InformalPhraseTranslatedLive.png

When you finish date entry, the selection moves to the right of the translated date.

C AfterEntry.png

If you later return your cursor to the tag (or immediately to the side of it), and use the plugin again, it will automatically select the date/time,

D AutoSelectDateTime.png

and you can enter an adjustment like -2d to bring the date ahead a couple of days, or 2w to push it back for two weeks. Again the translations and adjustments take place live, as you type,

E Adjust.png

and the cursor moves to right of the date when you finish editing with return or ESC.

F AfterAdjust.png

Informal and relative date phrases

Symbol Description Examples
now Current system time now +8h (8 hours from now)
today Time set to 00:00 today +2w (in two weeks)
yesterday Defaults to midnight of yesterday yesterday, yesterday 3pm
Symbol Format Examples
dayname sun, mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat [or full forms] thu 2pm, next sat, next saturday
current time now now +2h
months jan, feb, mar, apr, may, jun, jul, aug, sep, oct, nov, dec [or full forms] jul 14, 1 may
relative next, last, +[number][unit], -[number][unit] last month, next wednesday
intervals m[in], h[our], d[ay], w[eek], [m]o[nth], y[ear] today +1y, july -1w
time settings H, M, a(m), p(m) 2H 3pm 8am 8.30am 16:00
Dates Description Examples
ISO yyyy-mm-dd [HH:MM] 2014-07-14 +6w (six weeks after that day)
Informal months Defaults to midnight at the start of the first future month of this name aug (the first future august – next year's aug if we are already in this year's)
Informal days Preceding or following the name of the month, and assumed to be in the future feb 12, 12 feb (next year if the current date is after feb 12)
Informal years Before or after the month and day. Assumed to be the first future instance of the date) if omitted 12 June, 2015 june 12, june 12 2015
Last most recent past instance last wednesday, last jan 12, last month (midnight at the start of the month before this)
Next soonest future instance after the current week next friday (not the friday at the end of this week, if one remains, but the following friday)
Ago Before the current moment (if the unit is hours), otherwise, before midnight last night two hours ago, 3 weeks ago

Installation in FoldingText Dev 2, or TaskPaper Dev 3

  • From the application's main menu, choose File > Open Application Folder
  • Copy the .ftplugin folder and its contents into the Plug-Ins sub-folder of the application folder
  • Close and restart the application