"Text File Here" context menu option?

You can easily create your own contextual menu item that will perform a very similar action that will probably be close enough to meet your needs. It only takes a few minutes using Automator. Automator is in you Applications folder. Follow these steps:

-Launch Automator.

- From the Library Column, select Text Edit.

-From the Action column, select, drag and drop the New Text File into the workflow area.

-Select a default folder from the Where: drop-down menu.

-Click the Options triangle and check the Show Action when Run box.

-Check the Where box.

-From the menu bar, select File->Save as Plug-in

-In the dialog box, choose Finder from the drop-down menu labeled Plug-in for: and give the action a name like New Text Document.

-Click Save.

That's it. Now go back to the Finder, right-click and look at the items under Automater. Your new Action should be there. This one will let you choose where to place the text document. I didn't see a way to make the action default to the folder selected in the Finder the way the Windows thing works, but this is pretty close. You might want to fiddle around a bit in Automator and see if there is a way to do that.

Hope that works for you.

Good luck.

Thank you very much Arnold for this suggestion!
What's missing in this solution however is a way to get around the most annoying thing, that is the "save as.." dialog, where one must navigate through all the directory tree just to land at the current (front most) Finder window.
Does anyone have an idea on how to let Automator (or Apple Script) know what is the front window (focus) of the Finder and to save the text file there?

Any solution (Apple Script or Automator) to implement "Text file here" would be very welcome!
I often create short "readme" files in my folders, just to remind me about the work progress, when I get back to them after a few weeks or months.
"Text file here" context menu would be very useful for this (Windows has it and I believe it is a good idea).


Ric

You can easily create your own contextual menu item
that will perform a very similar action that will
probably be close enough to meet your needs. It only
takes a few minutes using Automator. Automator is in
you Applications folder. Follow these steps:

-Launch Automator.

- From the Library Column, select Text Edit.

-From the Action column, select, drag and drop the
New Text File into the workflow area.

-Select a default folder from the Where:
drop-down menu.

-Click the Options triangle and check the
Show Action when Run box.

-Check the Where box.

-From the menu bar, select File->Save as
Plug-in

-In the dialog box, choose Finder from the
drop-down menu labeled Plug-in for: and give
the action a name like New Text Document.

-Click Save.

That's it. Now go back to the Finder, right-click and
look at the items under Automater. Your new Action
should be there. This one will let you choose where
to place the text document. I didn't see a way to
make the action default to the folder selected in the
Finder the way the Windows thing works, but this is
pretty close. You might want to fiddle around a bit
in Automator and see if there is a way to do that.

PowerMac, iBook Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Another possible solution, though a bit roundabout, and not in the contextual menu...

Add a blank TextEdit document (template) to the sidebar of the Finder window.

When you want to create a new doc in a particular folder click on the template icon to open in a TextEdit window.
Option-Drag the icon from the title bar of the TextEdit window into the Finder showing the Folder in which you want to create the new TextEdit doc.

If you want to edit the new file immediately, you'll have to close the Template doc and the open one you just created.
Still not a perfect solution but it frees you from having to navigate through folders in the SaveAs dialog.

Always remember: Macs are drag 'n drop mousecentric. Very often that fact will provide the basis for a solution to an incredible variety of operations. With this in mind I opened a Save as... for this page in Safari and looked for something to drag 'n drop. There's a Test folder on the Desktop that was convenient, so I clicked on it and drug it into the Save as window (make sure the disclosure triangle is clicked so you actually can see the full navigation options, doesn't matter whether it is column or list view) and dropped it in the navigation section. The Test was now the location to save the page. But what about some other folder? You mentioned you already had your target folder open, so I opened another folder, brought up Save as, clicked my folder window to bring it forward, grabbed the little proxy icon for the folder (it's the little icon in title bar of the window) and dragged and dropped that into the navigation section of the Save as window. That folder was now the destination for Save as.


Francine
Schwieder

I just found this plug-in that exactly does what we are all missing in Mac OS X:
the "new file here" contextual menu !!

I wanted to share the information where to find this very useful utility with other Mac users that were since long looking for such a feature:

http://www.growlichat.com/NuFile.php

Apple, are you listening? This would be a great feature for upcoming OS X versions!!