New From Template

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The Windows 'New' menu has two big problems: it's just about impossible to add your own items to it, and if you can puzzle out how to do it, you can only have one file of each type. You also can't have folders as templates. New From Template is a smart and flexible alternative. Just right-click a folder, window background or the desktop and pick the file or folder you want to create from the flyout shortcut menu.

In the simple dialog that appears, type a name for the new file or folder and press Enter. (You can also check the box to have the file opened automatically for editing, or the folder opened to work with its contents.)

So how do those templates get onto the menu? One way is to pick the Add/Remove Templates item on the same menu: from this dialog you can add files and folders to use as templates from a standard dialog, or drag-and-drop them into the window. The other way is to use the Add To Templates tool: whenever you find a file or folder you want to make available as a template, just right-click it and choose this item to add it to your personal templates folder.

You can have as many templates as you want, including as many files as you like with the same extension. The only restriction (like any folder) is that every template must have a different name.