So far I have been enjoying Jekyll, but duplicating a post file to compose a new one (in order to keep the Front Matter formatting) is sort of a pain in the butt, so I wanted to find another solution. First I was thinking about to write a gulp task, but gulp and npm are not installed on Jekyll by default so it seemed to be too much trouble. Eventually I found a more convenient solution: SublimeTmpl package.

With this package we can easily create file templates with some dynamic content inside, and assign commands and shortcuts to these actions.

Creating a post template

1. Create a new command in Default.sublime-commands:

{
  "caption": "Tmpl: Create post",
  "command": "sublime_tmpl",
  "args": { "type": "post" }
}

2. Create a caption in Main.sublime-menu:

{
  "caption": "post",
  "command": "sublime_tmpl",
  "args": {
    "type": "post"
  }
}

3. Assign extension and syntax highlighting to your new type in SublimeTmpl.sublime-settings (User):

{
  "post": {
    "syntax": "Packages/Markdown/Markdown.tmLanguage",
    "extension": "markdown"
  }
}

4. Create the template in SublimeTmpl/templates:

---
layout: post
title: "${1:Post title}"
date: ${date}
categories: posts
tags: ${2:tag1} ${3:tag2} ${4:tag3}
---
${5: Write your post...}

The numbered fields make it possible to jump between these sections with TAB.

5. Assign a shortcut to the command in your .sublime-keymap (User):

{
  "keys": ["ctrl+alt+p"], "command": "sublime_tmpl",
  "args": {"type": "post"}, "context": [{"key": "sublime_tmpl.python"}]
}