Burst Notes: Timestamps and Placeholders

Version 1.09 adds three small tools for people who keep a journal, a work log or any other file where when matters as much as what:

• Timestamp Lines starts every line you capture with the time of day
• placeholders such as {{DATE}} and {{TIME}} are replaced with the current value as you type them
• Insert Date & Time puts the date and time at the cursor in the editor

All three write ordinary text into your Markdown file. Nothing is stored anywhere else, and a timestamp is just a few characters that you can edit or delete like any others.

Timestamp Lines

Switch on Timestamp Lines and every line you append from the command window starts with the time in bold:

- **09:12** Standup done, picking up the importer bug
- **09:48** Importer: the date parser drops the time zone
- [ ] **10:05** Ask Dana about the staging database

The prefix is added to bullets, to-do items and plain text lines alike. It follows the time format of your Mac, so you get 14:32 or 2:32 PM depending on your Language & Region settings.

There are four ways to switch it on and off:

• press Control-T while the command window is open
• choose Timestamp Lines from the footer pull-down of the command window
• choose Timestamp Lines from the menu bar icon’s menu
• run the Timestamp Lines command, which is listed under the text field while you type a line and under Settings; typing timestamp or journal finds it

While it is on, the footer reads Mode: Normal · Timestamp. The setting is remembered across launches, since timestamping is a habit rather than a one-off.

Timestamp Lines applies to lines appended from the command window. Text you type in the editor is left alone; use Command-Shift-D there, as described below.

Placeholders

A placeholder is a name in double braces. Burst Notes replaces it with the current value at the moment you write it. The examples show Wednesday, 11 November 2026 at 14:32.

Names can be typed in upper or lower case: {{time}} works just like {{TIME}}. Anything in double braces that is not in the table is left exactly as you typed it.

Offsets

Add a colon and a number to move a date placeholder forwards or backwards:

The number counts days for DATE, DATE_SHORT, ISO_DATE and WEEKDAY, weeks for WEEK_START, WEEK_END and WEEK_NUMBER, months for MONTH_YEAR and years for YEAR. {{DATE:0}} is the same as {{DATE}}.

Where placeholders work

In the command window. Type a placeholder anywhere in a line you are appending and it is filled in when you press Return:

Call back {{CLIPBOARD}} before {{DATE:1}}

is written as

- Call back 555 0134 before Nov 12 - Thursday

In the editor. In the Visual tab, the placeholder is replaced the moment you type its second closing brace. Command-Z brings back the text you typed, should you have wanted the braces after all. Placeholders are not replaced inside fenced code blocks or in the Source tab, which never changes what you type.

In templates. The starter templates have always used the same placeholders for their date headers. They are filled in once, when the file is created from the template.

Insert Date & Time

In the editor, press Command-Shift-D or click the clock button in the toolbar to insert the date and time at the cursor, for example Nov 11, 14:32. If text is selected, it is replaced. This works in both the Visual and the Source tab and is undone with a single Command-Z.

A journal in three keystrokes

Put together, these make Burst Notes a quick way to keep a running log of your day:

1. Create a file from the Daily Journal or Work Log template, or add a header to a file of your own.
2. Open the command window and press Control-T once to switch on Timestamp Lines.
3. From then on: the global shortcut, a few letters to find today’s header, Return, your line, Command-Return.

Each entry lands under the right header with the time in front of it, and you are back in the application you came from. Start a new day by adding a header in the editor: type ### {{DATE}} on a new line and the date fills itself in.

If you would like to read more about the technique of keeping a timestamped log between tasks, see the guides to interstitial journaling and to keeping a work log.

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