In bash there are several shortcuts you can use. My prompt looks like this:

PS1="[\u@\h \w]\$ "

which produces
[username@server workingdir]$

You can add color to them as well. There are a number of variables you may use in bash.

\a Alarm (Bell)
\d Date in fomat "Wed Jun 21"
\h Hostname
\j Jobs (Number of Background jobs)
\l Current Terminal Name
\n Newline inserted into prompt. (Usefull for 2-line prompts)
\r Carriage return in prompt
\s Current Shell
\t Time in 24 hour format, 16:25:00
\T Time in 12 hour format, 04:25:00
\u User's account name
\v Version and release of bash
\w Current working directory (full path /home/bill/.mozilla)
\W Last element of Working directory (.mozilla)
\V Version, release and patch level of bash
\\ single backslash inserted into prompt
\! Number of current command in command history
\# Number of current command where numbers start at 1 when shell starts
\A Time in 24 hour format without seconds 16:25
\@ Time in 12 hour format without seconds, 04:25 p.m.
\$ indicates root. display $ when not root and # when root.
\[ starts a sequence of non printing characters ending with \] (explanation to follow)
\nnn the character in ascii set coresponding to the octal number nnn

The last two commands can add color to the prompt. For example,

\[\033[1;36m\] changes the color to a light blue. \[\033[0m\] changes it to back to off-white. On a standard black background, white letters I use
PS1="[\[\033[1;36m\]\u\[\033[0m\]@\[\033[1;35m\]\h \[\033[1;32m\]\w\[\033[0m\]]\$ "
which gives me
[bill@server /usr/local/bin]$

The color changes are confusing, I know, but I like it.

;