“New Item” in Finder’s right-click menu

findershortcut-menu

In Windows when you're in File Explorer, you can right-click anywhere and create a new item of various types (there's then a submenu option to select which type: text file, ZIP file, etc., just to name a few). In Finder there seems to be no such option. I imagine the expected workflow on Mac would be to open an Application and create a new file from within the application, then save it. But I sometimes prefer this alternative workflow of creating a blank file first, and then opening it as the entrypoint into the application.

Is there some way to configure Finder to add a right-click option to create new, empty files?

Best Answer

1 - Create anywhere on your computer a Source folder with the files you want to use:

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2 - Open Automator and create a new service:

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3 - Set the Service to receive a folder in Finder as input:

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4 - Drag a "Set Value of Variable" action to the workflow:

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5 - Save a new variable "Storage":

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6 - Now that we have the target location lets clear the memory placing an Applescript action using this code:


tell application "System Events"
    set the clipboard to {}
end tell


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7 - Get the file you created using a "Get Specific Finder Item" action:

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8 - Copy to the new folder using a "Copy Finder Item" action and dragging the Storage variable from the bottom:

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9 - Save your workflow:

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10 - Usage - select the folder you want, right click and find your service:

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11 - Repeat the process for the zip file or other files you want.



Edit: if you know how to Applescript and want to improve further, you can use a dialog box to choose between several filetypes and build a single service, using a "choose from" command like this:


set fileType to (choose from list {"txt", "zip", "etc"} with prompt "Choose File")
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