5 Ways to Create a New Folder in Mac

Organizing files on Mac is one of the important tasks you need to do regularly. The easiest option is to create a folder with proper name and arrange the files within folder. This will help to find the files quickly and work on them whenever needed. You can even create a smart folder in Mac that will automatically group the files based on the set rules. Mac offers multiple ways to create a new folder. In this article, we will explain 5 different ways you can do that.

Creating New Folder in Mac

You can create three types of folders in Mac based on need:

• Create an empty new folder and move the files manually inside the folder.
• Create a new folder with the selected items. This is useful when you have group of files clustered on desktop or downloads folder. You can simply select relevant files and move them to a new folder as a single step.
• Finally, you can create a smart folder with predefined rules to organize files automatically.

1. Using Keyboard Shortcuts

The best and simple way to create a new folder in Mac is to use keyboard shortcuts. Make sure you see “Finder” menu on the top Apple bar and use one of the following shortcuts:

• Shift + Command + N – this will create a new empty folder inside the selected folder. For example, if you have selected “Desktop”, then the new folder will be created in desktop section. Mac will create a new empty folder with the name as “untitled folder”. You need to change the name of this new folder to desired name and manually move files. Note that you can simply highlight the folder and press enter key to edit its name.
• Control + Command + N – this is to create a folder with selected items. First, make sure to select one or more files and then press the keys to create a folder. For this case, Mac will create a folder with a name as “New Folder With Items” which you can change as per your need.  

2. From Finder Menu

Though creating a new empty folder works well with keyboard shortcuts, you may get confused when creating a folder with selected items. Unfortunately, there is also no default shortcut assigned for creating a smart folder in Mac. The solution here is to use the menu item for creating different type of folders. When you are in “Finder” app, go to “File” menu and choose one of the options.

• New Folder – create an empty folder.

• New Folder with Selection – this will be enabled only when you select one or more files. When you select a single file/folder, Mac will show its name in the menu like “New Folder “selected file/folder name””. If you have selected multiple files/folders, then you can see the number of selected files like “New Folder with Selection (Number of Selected Items)”.

• New Smart Folder – use this menu to create a smart folder and setup rules using the search box in Finder app. After that, click on “Save” button to create a folder with the provided name.

3. Using Right Click Context Menu

You can right click anywhere on the empty area like desktop or inside any folder in Finder app. Select, “New Folder” from the context menu that appears to create a new folder.

You can also create a folder with selected items using right click context menu. The menu item will show the number of selected items similar to Finder File menu.

4. From Action Icon in Finder

Next option is to use the “Action” icon in Finder app to create a new folder. You can use this option to create a new folder within in Finder app. The “Action” icon will show as three dots in a circle and you will see the description as “Perform tasks with the selected items“ when hovering on the icon. First, select the folder from the sidebar or navigate to the location where you want to create a new folder. Click on the small arrow next to the “Action” icon and select “New Folder” option.

Deleting Folders – if you have wrongly created a new folder, simply press “Command + Z” keys to revert back you action. This will delete the newly created folder and move back any items if you have selected.

5. Create Folders from Terminal

The last option is to create folders in Mac using Terminal app. You can create one or multiple folders in the desired location right from the command line.

• Press “Command + Space” to open Spotlight Search and search for “terminal”. Find the Terminal app and open the command line interface.
• First, you need to go to the location where you want to create a new folder. Let’s say, you want to create a folder with a name “folder1” under “Downloads” section.
• Type cd downloads in the prompt and press enter key. This is a change directory (cd) command which will change the prompt to “Downloads” directory. If you want to go to a subfolder, you can use another cd command to change the prompt directory to subfolder.
• Then enter mkdir folder1 and press enter key. This will make a new directory (mkdir) named “folder1” under “Downloads” section.
• For creating multiple folders, simply use the same mkdir command with multiple files names separated with space. The syntax should be like mkdir folder2 folder3 to create two new folders at a time.

• Now, go to “Downloads” section and you can see the new folders folder1, folder2 and folder3.

Bonus: Create New Folder While Saving a File

What if you want to create a new folder when saving a file? It is a common situation that you may not find a correct folder when trying to save a file. Mac allows you to create a new folder right from the Save / Save As dialog box. Simply, navigate to the correct path and click on the “New Folder” button. You will see a prompt asking to enter the folder name. Type the name and click “Create” button to have your folder.