You can make a new folder anywhere you like on macOS. But not a new file. Sorta makes sense. What kind of new file? In a program like VS Code, it assumes it will be a text file (as opposed to binary), so it absolutely lets you create a new file wherever and you name it with whatever extension you like.
I don’t blame macOS for not offering that, it’s a little niche, but for us developers, I think it’s handy to be able to snap a file into existence from the Finder. All y’all CLI types, I know you’ve got touch and whatnot and I’m very happy for you.
Fortunately, Raycast has a nice little extension for it. Check it:
You still have to pick the type of file, which… might be handy sometimes? And it supports templates and whatnot. I do wish there was just a command to make a new file and immediately let me name it whatever I want, including the file extension. But this has been handy enough I’ll take it.
Raycast is digging in a bit deeper for me. Maybe it’ll grab me like Alfred and the like never did. I think what’s helping is that I’m still heavily on Arc as my main browser, and you do a ton in Arc via a command bar. Plus this secret new version of CodePen we’re plucking away at has a command bar too. So I’m in command bars all the time from operating system, to browser, to website. I’m now wondering if command bars are starting to be a defining characteristic of “desktop” software.
UPDATE: There is a dedicated Mac app for this called Stempel.
Neat! I’m a little torn. Sometimes I love software that is 100% dedicated, and sometimes I like software that combines needs.
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