Add multiple files of one type to the “New” context-menu

Question

I fully understand how to add a "New" file/template to the context menu from Windows Explorer (Windows 7), by modifying the registry, as explained here for example:

How can I add an item to the 'new' context menu?

It works greats and the "filename" sub-key allow me to define a specific file located in C:\Windows\ShellNew. I thus configured there a .doc file corresponding to the template letter of my company (with logo, name, address...). Each time I want to create a letter, I just right-click and I got the template on my current directory !

Now, I would like to have several templates like this one for only 1 filetype (.doc)

The problem is that it seems that there is only one possible NullFile / FileName / Data / Command sub-key in the ShellNew key.

Is there any workaround, with a Command value for example ? Or a similar behavior without modifying the registry?

I'd just like to easily create different Word templates from my current directory, and avoid a copy/paste.

Thank you for your answers or advices.

Answer 1

The first thing you need to do is set the Command string (Right Click > New > String Value) to %SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /c "%SystemRoot%\ShellNew\WordTemplates.bat ^"%1^"" (assuming that the templates are at C:\Windows\ShellNew).

Then, create a new file at C:\Windows\ShellNew\WordTemplates.bat. In this file, place the following lines of code:

@echo off
echo What document would you like to create?
echo 1 - Template 1
echo 2 - The best template
echo 3 - Sample template
echo 4 - Template 4
echo 5 - Template 5
echo 6 - Template 6
echo 7 - Template 7
echo 8 - Template 8
echo 9 - Template 9
echo 0 - Template 10
choice /c 123457890>nul
copy "%SystemRoot%\ShellNew\Template%errorlevel%.docx" %1>nul

You can replace the descriptions of each template to your preference. The file names of each template must be Template1.docx, Template2.docx, ..., Template10.docx, Template11.docx, etc. The code above will only allow 10 templates. If you would like to specify 26 templates, you can use the alphabet as the choices. You can also change the file extension to .doc.

Answer 2

I know it isn't EXACTLY the same, but what about just using the Word templates? If you rename a .doc extension to .dot, it turns into a template automatically! What does this do?

If you double click that file, it will open a new Word document with that file as the template! It won't over write the template unless you explicitly tell Word to do so. Hitting Save or Save As will bring up the Save dialog, as though it was a brand new file.

What I would recommend is putting all the templates in one folder, then adding the folder as a Toolbar to the Taskbar. Always available, and you can just click, instead of right click, point to new, then click again. It would be two (one if you have a large taskbar) clicks, no waiting.

Answer 3

Invent a new extension for the doc files you wish to add, and set them to open with Word. Call each file as a new type of file.