As uninspired as I may be about Windows, one of the things I have always liked about that operating system is the option to right-click in a directory and create a new text file. Today I discovered NuFile, an extension for OSX that pretty much does just this. NuFile, once installed, provides an extra contextual menu on right click that allows you to create a number of different types of files, from text to powerpoint to a stub java class. However, there are 2 drawbacks regarding Nufile.
The first and least consequential is the extra features; for the way that I work, there is really no need for such a wide variety of file types. If I want to create some of the default file types, I’ll open the application that creates them. One benefit – the system prefs for NuFile allow you to add file types — so, for a someone who develops a considerable amount of Flash work, it could possibly be nice for just creating a stub empty swf file for projects not requiring the Flash IDE (although there are other more project integrated ways of doing this).
The second drawback is the most important. Unlike Windows, Nufile creates a new file with a specific name, such as “NewTextDocument.txt” and allows you the option of having it open automatically. The best part of its Windows counterpart is that the name remains selected and allows you to type the new name right there, rather than having to select and rename the file. It’s that simplicity that I would appreciate more. That being said, I don’t know how long it will last on my system, but I thought that it was a pretty nice little addition for some and worth mentioning.