Advanced Text Placement

[STEEDOE]

Hey guys I'm fairly new to tasker and a a little overwhelmed, but I'm really excited about its massive potential.
What I'm looking for is a way to have some way to paste or text expand the current date in a specific format. So that when I'm typing in phone I can insert the the exact date whenever I want.

The main thing that I want is a little complicated and specific but would be awesome if you guys could halp me out with.
I need a script to auto fill or paste (or by any method) the current date, five spaces (like tab indent), and then ".txt".
The tricky bit is if after it is generated to put the typing cursor right before the period in the ".txt" string.
This is so that I can make a special name template for a text file and then simple type out the name of the file and enter.
Any help regarding text expansion or active date variables would be awesome.

 

[Thom]

Welcome to Android Forums.

The question needs a little clarification. Post a sample string that you want to spit out and the location of the curser. ("the current date" could mean about 100 different things.)

Are you root-ed?

... Thom

 

[STEEDOE]

no im not rooted.
thanks answering!
im looking for the year, the month, and the day all in numeric values with no spaces in between.
an example of a blank file would be:
20160206 .txt

an example of a file with a name would be:
20160123 List of Characteristics.txt

Ideally i would want two text strings. one would be the one above that would be a file name, and the other would be a long drawn out, specific date string that i would use at will inside the file im typing. an example of latter could be:
5:45 PM Saturday, February 06, 2016

 

[electricpete]

Use the set clipboard command. As a start, set it to %DATE

Then paste clipboard from your keyboard when needed.

Maybe you already knew that much. Maybe you want the date in a different format...That will take some more work

 

[STEEDOE]

yikes i just looked up some tasker tutorials and its a lot more intense than i thought :SS

sorry for the probably dumb question but how do i paste from my keyboard

 

[Thom]

My recommendation with Tasker is to start out simple and nibble away at learning it. This as a starting project is slightly advanced.

You would create a scene with a text box and a button.
In use you would type in the text box and hit the button.
The task would then append a date in front of the string and a .txt string after it.
It would then do whatever you told it to do with the string.

... Thom

 

[electricpete]

sorry for the probably dumb question but how do i paste from my keyboard

In my Swype keyboard, I slide from "Swype" key to "v" key to paste (similar to ctrl-v on Windows pc). What keyboard are you using?

 

[STEEDOE]

haha okay im done. This seems like more work than i thought.
If by some chance someone wants to tell me exactly how to do it that would be really really nice, because im lost and i dont know how to do it.

 

[Thom]

Start it and I'm sure people will pitch in to help you do it.

... Thom

 

[Thom]

Welcome to Android Forums. English is needed.

Was that "Goody. Its contents are strictly necessary"? If so, what do you mean?

... Thom

 

[STEEDOE]

Okay guys ima try again here.
I need two things.
Two auto replacement script things for inserting the date as a text string.
Help me!
What is the first thing I do.
I create a profile? What settings should I set for the profile.
I found this thing called control V keyboard for tasked which seems to be offering what I want. How can I use it to do what I want?

 

[STEEDOE]

okay guys what do you got.
what are some methods i could use.
i imagined there being a on screen display sort of thing with a button for pasting the date.
or the best option is if it worked like like other text expanders

 

[Thom]

The following task will take the string from the Clipboard and add a prefix and suffix ... like ...

testname​

... will become ...

20160516testname.txt​

So you would ...

do a Copy to clipboard
execute task A
do a Paste from clipboard​

The task getFormattedDate is available at http://tasker.wikidot.com/getformatteddate

A
A1: Perform Task [ Name:getFormattedDate Priority:%priority+1 Parameter 1 (%par1):%TIMES Parameter 2 (%par2):yyyymmdd Return Value Variable:%formatteddate Stop:Off ]
A2: Variable Set [ Name:%filename To:%CLIP Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A3: Set Clipboard [ Text:%formatteddate%filename.txt Add:Off ]

(warning: setting the priority in A1 higher than the calling task is critical)

... Thom

 

[electricpete]

Another option for pasting (once you have populated the clipboard) is to long press in an input field. It should bring up a cut/copy/paste menu.