Creating a folder inside another folder when in list view in the Finder

In list view, if you invoque the New Folder command, the new folder appears at the top level of the hierarchy inside the window. What I want is for the new folder to be created inside the currently selected folder, even if it is three levels down in the hierarchy. For example:

Folder1

Folder2

Folder3

File1

File2

Folder4


If I just invoque the New Folder command here, the new folder will appear at the level Folder1, no matter what element is selected prior to invoquing the command. What I want is, if Folder3 is selected when I invoque the command, for the new folder to appear inside Folder3.

Unless there is a Finder trick I am not aware of, I suspect I have to create a Quick Action in Automator. I don't know Automator very much but I have managed to create an action that creates a new Folder but it will only create it at the location that is hard coded in the script and I have not found a way to have the script pick-up the location that is currently selected to create the new folder inside of. I suspect I need to create a variable that will contain the currently selected folder name and use that but I don't know if that is possible or, if so, how.

Any ideas?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 13.7

Posted on Jul 3, 2025 1:01 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 3, 2025 1:15 PM

Choose Utilities from the Finder's Go menu, open the Script Editor, and run:


tell application "Finder"

make folder at (selection as alias)

end tell


(260719)

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Creating a folder inside another folder when in list view in the Finder

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