Clever Clogs tip # 699
28 April 2022


Quickly insert the current date into your document (Word and Outlook) *

Do you often have to add today's date in your Word documents? If so, you probably go to the Insert tab and click on the Date and Time button in the Text group. Or perhaps you once right-clicked the button and stuck it on your Quick Access Toolbar?

But for those of you who love keyboard shortcuts (did you know that's me? ;) why not check out the following:

     ALT + SHIFT + D

It's the equivalent of Excel's TODAY function... it's a field and every time you open the file the date will change. That said, in Outlook it won't update the field when you open the email on a different date.

Oh, and if you don't like the way the date is displayed you can set your preferred format.

Related tips

  1. Have your favourite buttons easily accessible (Microsoft Office): tip_664.php
  2. Insert today's date or current time (Excel and Access): tip_552.php

Last week's CleverClogsTipTime on LinkedIn, in case you missed it ...

  1. Toggle between UPPER CASE, lower case and Sentence Case in Word, Outlook and PowerPoint
  2. Hear Caps Lock as you type


* Unless stated otherwise this tip is written for Microsoft 365 desktop apps and Windows 10 users, but might also be useful in Office 2010, 2013 and 2016.