This will spit out a list of files and folders that is a direct representation of what's in your home folder if you bring it up in Finder. Just to be sure of your surroundings, type in the 'ls' and hit enter to see the contents of the currently active directory. By default, when you open up Terminal, it should be pointing to your home folder. Change the Directoryīefore we learn how to create new files, we have to learn how to make sure they go into the right spot. Type a name for the folder and press Return. To give the folder a new name, select it, then click its current name. In a Finder window, open the location where you want to create the new folder. Step 4: Mac quickly creates a new file, with the file extension. Each of these will play into our final file creation snippet. You can create folders to organize your files and applications. Even if you've never opened Terminal, you'll be able to pull this one off, I promise.īeing able to create new files on the fly via the keyboard is pretty much guaranteed to make you feel like some sort of Mac wizard.īefore you start calling yourself Gandalf though, there are three commands that you must understand. Today's Quick Tip is perfect for anyone with any level of Terminal experience. Youll have to select Format > Make Plain Text or set the default format to plain text first. Don't worry though, we're here to help you through it.Įven if you've never opened Terminal, you'll be able to pull this one off. TextEdit has separate plain text and rich text modes. In the app menu select Format, Make Plain Text (or use Command-Shift-T keys). If you don't know what you're doing, you can seriously screw with your system in a bad way. To create a new file on a Mac launch TextEdit app from the Launchpad.

Wouldn't it be great if you could quickly create any type of file in OS X and place it in any directory? With a few quick Terminal commands, you can! Read on to see what they are.

How to create a new file in mac