(apologies the following question is less specific to KM but more of an overall computing question while using KM; mods - feel free to move to an off-topic area if you see fit)
I'm using KM for a shortcut which allows me to insert the current 24hr time as a timestamp in a filename (or file folder), something I need to do quite often for work stuff, such as exports throughout the day which need to be sorted by time of export.
Currently I am using insert text by typing the following token:
%ICUDateTime%HHmm%
This gives me 24hr time such as 1325 to mean 1:25pm. However for ease of readability and clarity I would like to follow similar to the ISO standard which uses colons to separate time values, which I've always known is a character that cannot be used on macs in file or folder names.
After doing some research, I found out about a letter-based unicode character known as the "modifier letter colon" which is said can be used in filenames. It looks basically identical and works great. The token including this would be:
%ICUDateTime%HH꞉mm%
But some warn against using it due to compatibility with windows, older macs, and some programs, as well as coding. However, I never work or share with windows machines, I'm not concerned with legacy support, and I am not doing any coding over here. Maybe sometimes these files might be uploaded via a fileshare service such as google drive or dropbox. Software I may use files in include any of the Adobe CC suite, as well as music programs including Cubase, Pro Tools, and Logic.
Other scenarios I would love to use this character include mathematical ratios and aspect ratios for videos. But before I go crazy using this shortcut to add timestamps, I'm wondering if anyone else has done this and if you've had any unforeseen issues? Am I safe to move forward in 2025, or should I still adopt a different character (or in my case, for times I go would go with nothing and ratios a simple x, but these are just less readable at a glance).
If it's for your own use and you don't share with others, I don't see any real issues—I even tested in Terminal, and it appears fine there, too.. You'll have to remember that's what you used if you ever use Spotlight to search for times, and I'm sure there are some other edge cases that might bite you, but they would (probably) be few and far between.
For readability and maximum compatibility across workflows and platforms, hyphens and underscores are your friends:
My_File_2025-06-19_16_58.txt
or
My_File_2025-06-19_16-58.txt
And I strongly recommend you use HH for the hours, so that your timestamps have a ASCII sort that matches their temporal sort -- you may find that zero padding solves your readability issue without the need for extra characters:
Using Unicode characters can cause problems on cloud services, NASs (eg Synology), and on the command line. Multiple periods in a file name can cause problems with overly sensitive malware detectors. None of which may matter to you now -- but what workflows or platforms will you be using in 5 years time?
I've spent way too much time in my work-life struggling with Mac-safe file names during storage migrations. My advice is to keep it simple, even if it looks ugly...
Thanks for your suggestions. I actually have for a long time used the ISO date standard YYYY-MM-DD, just like that (which I use KM to help me insert into file and folder names all day long!). For time, the ISO standard is to use colon as a delimiter, although I find it strange the international community has never come up with an alternative standard for use in computing! According to ISO 8601 -
The separator used between date values (year, month, week, and day) is the hyphen, while the colon is used as the separator between time values (hours, minutes, and seconds).
However, the one alternative ISO suggestion I found seems to be without any spacers, and leading with a T. Which would produce 2025-06-19_T1358 to aid in clarity as to what the second field refers to.
If I weren't to use colons, I would personally rather use no space than a hyphen or underscore, which to my eyes is actually less readable as a timestamp, and misleads me to think it could be some other type of value or counter. So to my original point, the reason to use colon wasn't only because it looks aesthetically pleasing, but rather because it's completely unambiguous at a glance (hence the ISO standard). But if it causes problems, I don't think it would be worth it. I'm worried a bit less about most scenarios but cloud services are something I use and will use in the future.
That was actually my intention, but I missed that extra H. Good catch – thank you!
I have just one macro in which I use ː ( U+02D0 modifier letter triangular colon) as a time unit separator for use in the naming of files. It is less easy to visually confuse with a colon ꞉ (U+003A colon) than your choice of ꞉ (U+A789 Modifier Letter Colon). That could be seen as an advantage or a disadvantage, according to use case and user.
No, but what are your concerns? Macros, like all software, should be expected to fail under some unforeseen conditions. Are you planning to use the macro for a highly important mission-critical task? If not, what is the worst that could happen?
I see that the entries on codepoint.com for both of the colon substitutes mentioned above contain the following line:
“In Windows and macOS, the letter colon can be used to emulate the punctuation colon in file names, where the punctuation colon is a reserved character that cannot be used.”
Therefore it seems likely that you and I are not alone in thinking of such a hack, if that is any reassurance!
I haven't been super worried about it, but my lingering concerns would be that some software (even to this day) doesn't get on well with special characters, so linking to such files or directory paths could cause issues; and secondly, uploading files to share or view on cloud-based services, such as google drive or dropbox - not sure if something funny could happen there when going to download on the other end, for example.
I reckon there's only one way to find out for sure and that is to run some tests using the software and cloud services I use most frequently and see what happens!
