Expand dates using natural language inline within the editor view.
Typing `@today` Enter will automatically be expanded to the current date. Press Shift at the same time to keep the input text as an alias (e.g. `@today` → `[[202112-27|today]]`).
---
## `nldates` URI Action
It's now possible to use the [Obsidian URI](https://publish.obsidian.md/help/Advanced+topics/Using+obsidian+URI) to open daily notes using natural language by using the nldates action `obsidian://nldates?day=
Opens the date picker menu
#### Natural Language Dates: Open daily note using natural language
Input a natural language date to open or create the daily note for the parsed date.
#### Other Commands
| Setting | Description | Default |
| ------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| Insert current date | Inserts the current date, using the format specified in the settings menu | `YYYY-MM-DD` |
| Insert current time | Inserts the current time, using the format specified in the settings menu | `HH:mm` |
| Insert current date and time | Inserts the current date, using the format specified in the settings menu | `YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm` |
| Parse natural language date | Parses the selected text as a natural language date. Replaces selected text with an obsidian link to the parsed date in the format specified in the settings menu. For single-word dates (e.g. today, tomorrow, friday, etc.), it's possible to use the command without selecting the word first. It's also possible to use dates like Nov9, 25Dec to use this trick. | `[[YYYY-MM-DD]]` | | Parse natural language time | Parses the selected text as a natural language time. Replaces selected text with the parsed time stamp in the format specified in the settings menu. You can try with any of the standard times, i.e. now, in 15min, in 1h, 5min ago, etc. | `HH:mm` | | Parse natural language date (as link) | Parses the selected text as a natural language date. Replaces selected text with a standard markdown link to the parsed date in the format specified in the settings menu | `[selected text](YYYY-MM-DD)` | | Parse natural language date (as plain text) | Parses the selected text as a natural language date. Replaces selected text with a plain text parsed date in the format specified in the settings menu | `YYYY-MM-DD` | **Note:** You can of course add hotkeys to each of these commands. --- ## Usage ### Examples The parser supports most date/time formats, including: - Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday, Last Friday, etc - 17 August 2013 - 19 August 2013 - This Friday from 13:00 - 16.00 - 5 days ago - 2 weeks from now - Sat Aug 17 2013 18:40:39 GMT+0900 (JST) - 2014-11-30T08:15:30-05:30 ### Demo
> **Note**:
> The parser will replace all the selected text, meaning that in a sentence you should only select the dates to be parsed and not the full sentence.
> In the example sentence `Do this thing by tomorrow`, only the word `tomorrow` should be selected. Alternatively, keep in mind that you can place your cursor **on** or **next to** the word tomorrow, and it will be replaced:
---
## How to install
### This plugin is still awaiting approval from the Obsidian team. It's been there since Feb 6 2025.
You can show interest by bumping the issue here: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/pull/5319
Hopefully it will get merge, soon (tm)
~In Obsidian go to `Settings > Third-party plugins > Community Plugins > Browse` and search for `Natural Language Dates`.~
### Manual installation
Unzip the [latest release](https://github.com/tbergeron/nldates-redux/releases/latest) into your `