Windows Notepad: Insert Time and Date into Text or Log File

Contributed by davak June 6, 2005  
Tagged: Windows

Notepad is one of window’s best little tools. As I frequently use it with logs, here are a couple of time/date tricks I have learned over the years.

Notepad is simple and full of little tricks. I use it for creating and using log files all the time. Here are a couple of ways to use notepad to automatically insert the time and date.

Automatically insert timestamp everytime a file is opened:

1. Open notepad
2. On the first line of the file type this:
.LOG

3. Hit ENTER to insert one carriage return.
4. Save the file

Now… everytime you open the file in notepad, a timestamp will be inserted.

If you are in notepad and just decide you need to add the current timestamp, just hit F5. Easy, huh?