What’s new

Unreleased

Not released yet

Website: newfilemac.com no longer uses Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager. Visits are counted with Umami on SMLTLS's own server, without cookies and without keeping your IP address. Recordings of a visit, which help find where the site is unclear, are only made if you say yes, with all text and typing hidden; "Recording choice" at the bottom of every page changes your answer.

Website: newfilemac.com fits on phones. The header no longer runs off the right edge (the links get a row of their own under the name), and no page scrolls sideways down to 320 px wide.
Website: the privacy page, the license agreement, the support page and the questions describe the version you can download: no trial, no license check and nothing to buy yet. Contact moves to [email protected], support to [email protected].

Released 2026-09-30

Updates: New File checks newfilemac.com once a day for a newer version and offers the download (Settings › General › Updates, with Check Now). It can be turned off.

Released 2026-09-30

Identifiers moved from nl.hrbl.newfile to com.smltls.newfile (app, extension, App Group, keychain). Installs from before this update start over: the extension has to be enabled and the disk access granted again, and templates and settings are back to their defaults.
New app icon: a flat blue squircle with a white sheet and the plus cut out of it. The disk image carries it as its volume icon.
A Liquid Glass app icon on macOS 26 and later, in light, dark, clear and tinted. Earlier macOS versions get a flat rendering of it.

Keyboard shortcut, ⌃⌥N by default and configurable in Settings: with Finder in front it creates the default template in the front window's folder, or on the Desktop. Asks Finder which folder is open (one-time Automation permission).
Icons next to the menu items in Finder, like Finder's own "New Folder".
Templates → Add Recommended: add Text, Markdown, JSON, YAML, CSV, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Shell, Swift or Empty with one click; file types you already have are dimmed.

Settings has a sidebar: Templates, then General and Setup under Settings, each page titled in a thin title bar.
About New File (in the app menu while Settings is open) shows the version and links to the website, support and the license.
Many more template icons: hundreds of file types get a fitting symbol in Finder's menu and the template list, and types New File doesn't list are recognized through macOS.
Settings reopens on the page you last used, and while it is open New File shows in the Dock and in Command-Tab so it can't get lost behind Finder.
Works better with VoiceOver and the keyboard: a spoken shortcut, labelled template buttons, Move Up and Move Down for templates.
Forgetting disk access and removing a template ask first.
Clearer alerts and error messages.
A template without a menu label shows its file name in Finder instead of a blank item.

Only Finder's menu can ask New File to create a file. Before, any web page or app could open a newfile:// link and have a file created in any folder New File has access to.
A template whose file name contains / or :, or is empty, . or .., is refused instead of writing outside the folder.

Released 2026-09-09

"New Text File" and a "New File ▸" submenu in Finder's right-click menu, in every folder, including the window background.
Non-colliding names (untitled.txt, untitled-2.txt, …); the new file is selected so Return renames it.
One-time whole-disk access through a security-scoped bookmark; a clear alert for read-only folders.
Settings: default template, template editor (label, file name, extension, contents), open after creating, and the opt-in "rename immediately".
Runs as a background helper with no Dock icon and opens at login by default.
Release pipeline: Developer ID signing, notarized and stapled DMG.