Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Make Any File a Template Using This Hidden macOS Tool

Great tip! How long has this feature been around?

Edit: According to Google this feature has been around since OSX 10.0!
 
AngerDanger said:
Not only did I not know what that checkbox did, I'd somehow never even noticed it 😅



Seriously, "Make Template" would be so much less ambiguous.
Click to expand...

In Italian they choose to name this function Usa come modello, which could be translated in English as Use as model or Use as sample or something like that. Surely more straightforward that Stationery pad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AngerDanger
Wow this is great! Thanks MR!
In German it’s called “Formblock” what you roughly translate to “form pad”
 
Thank you for this. I’m already thinking of several ways to implement this in my workflow. Incredibly useful and I will definitely come back to a MacRumors more often if there are more articles like this, I feel like there’s so many hidden features. Many of us don’t know about especially me since I’ve only been on Mac for four years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AppliedMicro
This is one of those features that I think "OK, that's good to know" but in a few weeks/months when I actually have a use for it, there's no way I'll remember what it's called or where it's hidden.
 
PsykX said:
In French, it's called "Modèle" which means "Model". Much more clear 🙂
Maybe I'm just stupid but I have no idea what a Stationery Pad is.
Click to expand...
Stationery is what you write letters on. I assume a stationery pad is a stack of these identical sheets of paper. (That makes sense in terms of this template feature.) However, I’ve never heard anyone call it “stationery pad.”
 
Somewhat related to this: I've been using New File Menu (app store link) for a while now and find it quite useful for quickly creating a file "in place" directly in the folder I'm currently looking at. I believe Windows has a similar native feature. Once you set it up and give it permission, it lives in your menu bar and gives you a simple drop down allowing you to create a new file of whichever type(s) you've set in its preferences:

iMac 2025-02-10 at 1.15.10 PM.png


Out of the box, you can use it to create generic files of quite a few types (see below) but you can also import custom templates of your own creation. I'm not a power user by any stretch, but I do really appreciate the power and flexibility here.

iMac 2025-02-10 at 1.10.31 PM.png
 
verdi1987 said:
Stationery is what you write letters on. I assume a stationery pad is a stack of these identical sheets of paper. (That makes sense in terms of this template feature.) However, I’ve never heard anyone call it “stationery pad.”
Click to expand...
That's exactly what a stationery pad is. The naming of this feature dates back to when Apple was all about skeuomorphism and the "paperless office."
 
they took "save as" off the textedit/preview/others file menu for this? And didn't tell us? Many years wasted accidentally editing a file, having to revert, go back make a copy and redo edits on it. Or sometimes forgetting wiping out the original version. Wish they'd just leave stuff alone sometimes and not invent weird UX contortions to force you through.
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: rettro, platinumaqua and Evil Lair
bbzzz said:
they took "save as" off the textedit/preview/others file menu for this? And didn't tell us? Many years wasted accidentally editing a file, having to revert, go back make a copy and redo edits on it. Or sometimes forgetting wiping out the original version. Wish they'd just leave stuff alone sometimes and not invent weird UX contortions to force you through.
Click to expand...
You've got that backwards. The feature detailed here predates the change in File > Save... behavior by decades.

Also, if you use the key shortcut for Save As (⌘⇧S) it immediately invokes the File > Duplicate command to open an untitled, unsaved version of the same file. This is almost exactly the same behavior as Save As -- only difference I can see is that Duplicate leaves open the file you originally opened.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: rettro
It's funny, when I saw the headline I thought this "tool" would be some arcane Terminal command and I wondered "how will this be different from ticking Stationery Pad?" 😀
 
  • Like
Reactions: verdi1987
bbzzz said:
they took "save as" off the textedit/preview/others file menu for this? And didn't tell us? Many years wasted accidentally editing a file, having to revert, go back make a copy and redo edits on it. Or sometimes forgetting wiping out the original version. Wish they'd just leave stuff alone sometimes and not invent weird UX contortions to force you through.
Click to expand...
Save As became Duplicate when macOS introduced versioning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345 and platinumaqua
Nermal said:
It's funny, when I saw the headline I thought this "tool" would be some arcane Terminal command and I wondered "how will this be different from ticking Stationery Pad?" 😀
Click to expand...
I’ve looked at thousands of Get Info dialogs and can’t recall ever seeing it. I have used Locked, so I must have seen it, but apparently I was never curious enough to research what it did.
 
verdi1987 said:
I’ve looked at thousands of Get Info dialogs and can’t recall ever seeing it. I have used Locked, so I must have seen it, but apparently I was never curious enough to research what it did.
Click to expand...
I think I first noticed it in System 7 🙂

Edit: After a little bit of playing around in an emulator, it looks like the feature was added in 7.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: rettro, ignatius345, verdi1987 and 2 others
ignatius345 said:
You've got that backwards. The feature detailed here predates the change in File > Save... behavior by decades.

Also, if you use the key shortcut for Save As (⌘⇧S) it immediately invokes the File > Duplicate command to open an untitled, unsaved version of the same file. This is almost exactly the same behavior as Save As -- only difference I can see is that Duplicate leaves open the file you originally opened.
Click to expand...
You can also hold the Option key in the File menu to bring back Save As (replaces Duplicate), or use Cmd-Opt-Shift-S.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back