The File menu is the place to go for commands that make new things. As I regularly say to clients, “All New commands are in the File menu.” Perhaps “most” would be the more accurate quantifier, but that’s beside the point.

Take this as an invitation to explore the top of the File menu in each application you use and discover what you can create.

Standards at Work

Apple continues to maintain its Human Interface Guidelines to provide developers with suggestions for how to make applications that look and feel consistent with each other. That way, users don’t get confused when switching from one app to the next.

According to these guidelines, in most applications, particularly those associated with documents or multiple windows, the File menu is typically the third menu on the menu bar, just after the Apple menu and the Application menu. The first command in the File menu is New… and it serves to create a new document, window, or other core object of the application.

So, in the Finder, where the primary activity involves navigating and organizing files and folders in a window, the top command in the File menu is New Finder Window. In Mail, that command is New Message. In Safari, it’s New Window. And in Pages, it’s simply New…, after which you choose a template to be the foundation of your new document.

Creation at Your Fingertips

As one of my Commands prints by Christopher David Ryan reads, “Please do not ⌘C | Create something ⌘N.” The keyboard shortcut for that top level New command is usually Command+N, as you can see in the Finder’s File menu pictured earlier. In any such application, you can simply press Command+N to create that new thing.

However, in certain applications where the primary object is not a document or window, the topmost command in the File menu might have a different shortcut to match. For example, Google Chrome has always encouraged users to create browser “tabs” instead of cluttering the screen with multiple windows. In Chrome, the top File menu command is New Tab with shortcut Command+T. The second command is New Window with shortcut Command+N.

Take some time to experiment with what Command+N does in each application you use. You may even find an app, such as Slack, where the shortcut has an effect but is not listed in any menu. Add other modifiers like Shift, Control, or Option to make additional keyboard shortcut discoveries.

New Smarts

Among the File menu New commands in some applications, you’ll discover the ability to create something “Smart.” Smart objects, such as folders in the Finder, mailboxes in Mail, and albums in Photos, are the result of specifying criteria and saving a search in a given app.

For example, if you frequently want to find the documents you worked on yesterday, you could navigate to Documents, search for the date Yesterday, and save the search. This would generate a Smart Folder that you could put on the Finder window sidebar for quick access.

Similarly, if you commonly send yourself email messages and want to group these messages together in Mail, you could create a Smart Mailbox (as above) and specify the criteria to match.

Smart objects generally offer “any” or “all” groupings and don’t support complex logic, so there are some limitations to how many criteria you might want to specify for a single item.

What new creations are you making? What keyboard shortcuts have you discovered that make your computing more efficient? Where else in your life are you experiencing newness?