How in the world are you meant to do it on a Mac?

According to Macworld’s Dan Frakes, Document Palette is the primary choice. By pressing the key combination, the application shows a semi-transparent palette similar to Mac OS X’s application switcher wherein you select your file type and a new file is birthed.

All this for $8? It’s a great app, but hardly seems worth it.

For Windows users longing for the right click functionality, Dan recommends NuFile. OK, Let’s have at it. Based on Dan’s recommendation, I’ve used NuFile for quite some time. Perhaps I should rephrase that. I’ve had NuFile installed for quite some time. Although it does a great job of taking a Windows feature and “Macifying” it, it takes effort to right click, select the “new file” option, then choose the file type (Fig 4). Yes, I’m lazy (in the productive sense). Blame Apple.

Yesterday I uninstalled NuFile. I couldn’t stand it. “A new file in less than two clicks” claims the website, but it fails to mention having to move the mouse to get to the place you want to click. I’m lazy (in the productive sense); I use Quicksilver.

Most people, as I did, deactivate or ignore the “Make New” action. Don’t know what I mean? Try using it. By default, nothing happens.

That’s when I found a nice gem that Alcor dropped in the Quicksilver forums. Turns out, to use the make new action requires a bit of manual setup - but the rewards are worth it.

Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver and create a new folder. Call it “Templates”. Getting this? Inside the folder you make whatever file type you’d like to store as a template. For example, I’ve got a CSS file, HTML document, PHP file and a JS file for web development. You could also add a Objective-C header file, a Word document, Keynote presentation or any other file you’d like to be able to create at your leisure. What’s more, these files don’t have to be blank. Your HTML document can contain the basic HTML framework (A head and body, and perhaps a blank title). The header file can have a blank Objective-C class header, and your Keynote presentation can be preset with a theme, styles and content.

Now, this is where things start to get interesting. Because you can create templates for files with content inside them, you could really do anything you like. Have a template for an invoice, a formal letter, a formatted HTML document to fit your site. This redefines the concept of a template. Well, not really, but it’s how templates should be. Perhaps create a template for an install guide, or readme file if you’re a developer. If you go to school, have a template for experiment reports for science, or for weekly homework. The possibilities are endless.

Is there an easier way to achieve this that I’ve missed? Do you prefer something different, or did you find this article useful? Be sure to tell me that you’re listening (or reading) and post a comment.