How to use templates and placeholders

A placeholder is a word in curly braces that MemoKey replaces when the note’s text leaves the app: when the MemoKey keyboard inserts the note on iPhone or Android, or when you copy the note with Copy. There are three: {date}, {time} and {cursor}.

Write them exactly like this: lowercase, in curly braces, with no spaces. {Date} or { date } stay as typed. While a note contains a placeholder, the editor shows a short hint under the text.

From MemoKey 3.5, you do not have to type them yourself: the editor toolbar has an Insert Placeholder button — the braces icon. Tap it and choose {date}, {time} or {cursor}: it goes in right where the cursor is, and the menu shows today’s date and time as hints.

{date} becomes today’s date and {time} the current time, from your phone’s clock. A note that says “Sent {date}, {time}” is inserted as “Sent Oct 28, 2026, 8:30 PM”.

They are written in the app’s language: in English “Oct 28, 2026” and “8:30 PM”, in Vietnamese “28 thg 10, 2026” (some phones write “ngày 28 thg 10, 2026”) and “20:30”. If the app’s language is set to follow the system, your phone’s own format is used.

Every {date} and {time} in a note is filled in. There is no way to keep a literal {date} or {time} in inserted or copied text.

Put {cursor} where you want to keep typing, for example “Hi {cursor}, thanks for writing.” When the MemoKey keyboard inserts the note, the marker disappears and the cursor waits where it was, so you can type the name right away.

Copy has no cursor to place, so it simply removes the marker. Only the first {cursor} counts; a second one stays in the text as typed. A note without it is inserted as before, with the cursor at the end.

From MemoKey 3.6, {date+3} fills in the date 3 days from today and {date-1} yesterday’s date, written the same way as {date}. N is a number of days, up to three digits; {date+0} is today.

Insert Placeholder in the editor has a Tomorrow row that adds {date+1}. Write it exactly like this: lowercase, no spaces; anything else, such as {date +1} or {time+1}, stays as typed.

From MemoKey 3.6, {clipboard} becomes the text you copied last. It fills in when you use Copy, when the keyboard inserts the note, with Paste MemoKey note on Android, when you tap the note in a widget and when Get MemoKey Note returns it in Shortcuts.

MemoKey reads the clipboard only for notes that contain {clipboard}. On iPhone, the keyboard can read it only with Allow Full Access; without it, {clipboard} stays as written and the keyboard explains how to turn Full Access on.

An image or an empty clipboard fills in nothing. The copied text goes in as it is: placeholders inside it are not filled in. Insert Placeholder has a Clipboard row.

From MemoKey 3.6, write {ask:Name}, {ask:Order number} or any label up to 40 characters. When you copy or insert the note, a small form asks for each value once, then puts it in. Every {ask:…} with the same label is one field, so the value goes in everywhere it appears. Insert Placeholder has an Ask me row.

Leave a field blank to remove it from the text; Cancel inserts nothing. In the keyboard, the form covers the keys and you type with its own letter and number keys, because a keyboard cannot open another keyboard.

Where no form can be shown, the text is left as written: widgets and Get MemoKey Note in Shortcuts keep {ask:…} as you typed it.

From MemoKey 3.7, give a field choices to tap: {ask:Size|S,M,L} shows S, M and L above the field when you copy or paste the note in MemoKey or insert it with the MemoKey keyboard. Tap one, or type something else. Widgets, Shortcuts and sharing keep {ask:…} as written.

Fields remember your answers too: the last 5 values for a field show as buttons above it, so a repeat order number or customer name is one tap. Touch and hold a button to forget it. They stay on your phone and are never kept for locked notes; turn this off or clear them in Settings → Keyboard (Remember fill-in answers, Clear remembered answers).

Two buttons in the note editor’s toolbar help you put a template together. Insert Note puts the text of another of your notes at the cursor, so a greeting or a signature is written once and reused. The placeholders in it stay as written and are filled in later, when you insert the finished note with the keyboard or copy it. A locked note shows its title only and asks for your passcode once, and the note you are editing is not in the list.

Style Text opens the font generator: tap a style and it replaces the text you selected, or goes in at the cursor when nothing is selected. Select a heading such as the name of your shop first to restyle just that. The tool has no Pro gate. Accents are kept, but đ and Đ stay unstyled.

Only the keyboard and Copy fill in placeholders. The saved note never changes: previews, search, share, Save to Text, QR codes, Duplicate and backups keep {date}, {time} and {cursor} as you wrote them, so a restored backup still has working templates.

The keyboard inserts very long notes in pieces; a placeholder that falls exactly between two pieces stays as typed.