How to paste saved replies on a Mac, with today's date filled in

macOS Text Replacements turn a short code into a longer phrase as you type, but the phrase never changes. Holdall snippets can change: save a reply once with {date} in it, and each paste fills in the day you paste it.

What macOS offers

Open System Settings, Keyboard, and click Text Replacements…. Add a short code, such as ;addr, and the text it becomes. Type the code in most apps and macOS swaps in the text. Replacements sync to your other Apple devices through iCloud. They can't fill in a date, a time or anything you copied.

Fix it with Holdall

Download Holdall, drag it to Applications and open it. Click Open Accessibility Settings and switch Holdall on, so it can paste into the app you're using.
Type the reply anywhere, with a placeholder where the changing part goes, and copy it. For example: Sent on {date}. Here is the link: {clipboard}
Press Option-Command-V to open the panel, right-click the reply and choose Make Snippet.
To paste it, open the panel, click Snippets and pick it.

Holdall fills in four placeholders as it pastes:

Placeholder	Becomes
`{date}`	Today's date
`{time}`	The time now
`{day}`	Today's weekday
`{clipboard}`	The text you copied last

Dates and times follow your Mac's language and region. Snippets paste as plain text and stay until you remove them.

One shortcut per reply

For the replies you use most, right-click a snippet in the panel, choose Set Shortcut…, and press the keys you want. That shortcut pastes the snippet in any app, placeholders filled in, without opening the panel.

To keep replies together, right-click them and choose Add to Collection, then pick the collection from the panel's Collections menu.

If it doesn't work

Nothing pastes. Holdall needs Accessibility to paste for you. Switch it on in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility. If it is on and Holdall still asks, click Reset and try again in its Settings, or run tccutil reset Accessibility ai.lfglabs.holdall in Terminal and switch it on again.
The snippet came out empty. It uses {clipboard} and the clipboard held no text. Copy some text and paste the snippet again.