Actions
Everything FileMate adds to Finder’s right-click menu. You only see the actions that work for the files you’ve selected.
Finder tools
New File
Right-click a folder’s background, or the Desktop, to create a text, Markdown, JSON, YAML, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python or shell script file, a .env or a .gitignore. Add your own templates in Settings, and turn off the ones you don’t use.
Paste Clipboard as File
Saves copied text as Clipboard Text.txt, or a copied image as Clipboard Image.png, in the folder you right-clicked.
Copy Path, Filename, File URL
For one file or several, one per line. Right-click a folder’s background for Copy Folder Path.
Open Here
Opens the folder in Terminal, Visual Studio Code, Cursor or any other app; turn on iTerm and Warp, or add your own, in Settings. On a folder it’s called Open In, and on a file Open Containing Folder In.
Documents
Convert to PDF
Saves a PDF with the same name next to the document. Select several documents to convert them all at once.
- Word
- Each section keeps its page size, margins and orientation. Headers and footers, headings, lists, tables, pictures and charts are kept, and links stay clickable.
- Excel
- Every visible sheet, on pages as wide as the sheet (up to 37.5 inches), so no column is cut off. Wider sheets are split into bands of whole columns, as Excel prints them. Formulas show the results saved in the file.
- PowerPoint
- One page per slide at the presentation’s own slide size. Hidden slides are left out.
Works with .docx, .xlsx and .pptx, without Microsoft Office. Older .doc, .xls and .ppt files and password-protected documents aren’t supported. The converter uses the fonts on your Mac, so the PDF can differ from Office in places. Known differences
Merge into PDF…
Combines PDFs and images into one PDF, in the order you set. Links between pages and bookmarks keep working. Images go on A4 or US Letter pages, or pages the size of the image.
Compress PDF
Starts at Safe, which only shrinks oversized images and keeps text, links, bookmarks and form fields. Stronger also recompresses images as JPEG. Savings depend on the PDF and your version of macOS.
Maximum turns each page into an image for the smallest file, so text can no longer be selected. It only runs if you choose it: from a result, after FileMate says what it removes, or as the default in Settings.
Signed, encrypted and password-protected PDFs are left as they are, so signatures and security settings aren’t lost.
Create PDF
One image becomes a one-page PDF with the same name.
Images
Convert Image
To JPEG, PNG, HEIC or TIFF, and WebP on Macs that can write it. Photos are turned upright, and transparent areas become white when converting to JPEG.
Compress Image
For JPEG, PNG, HEIC and TIFF. Safe keeps the size in pixels at 80% quality, and PNG and TIFF stay lossless. Stronger lowers the quality, or limits PNG and TIFF to 2,560 pixels; Maximum goes further. The copy is only kept if it’s smaller.
Photo details such as the date and camera are kept. You can remove location and device details, or all metadata, in Settings.
Video
The sizes in the demo are an example: a 90-second 1080p clip at Safe.
Compress Video
For MP4, MOV and M4V. It starts at Safe:
- Safe, the default, keeps up to 4K.
- Stronger keeps up to 1080p.
- Maximum keeps up to 720p, at the lowest bitrate.
If a video could get smaller still, the result offers the next level; nothing stronger runs unless you choose it. HEVC gives smaller files; Most Compatible (H.264), in Settings, also plays on older devices. If the copy wouldn’t be smaller, nothing is saved.
HDR, spatial and transparent videos, and videos with subtitles, chapters or several audio tracks, are left as they are, so nothing is lost.
Create Video from Images…
Select two or more photos and set their order in the window that opens.
- Each photo shows for 1, 2, 3 or 5 seconds, or a time you type.
- Photos cut from one to the next, or crossfade.
- A 1080p frame, landscape or portrait, to suit most of the photos or as you choose.
Photos are fitted to the frame on black, never stretched or cropped. The video is an H.264 MP4 at 30 frames per second, saved as Slideshow.mp4.
Extract Audio
Saves a video’s sound as an M4A file next to it. The audio is copied without re-encoding when possible, so no quality is lost. If a video has more than one audio track, FileMate asks which one you want.
Merge Videos…
Joins two or more clips one after another, in the order you set. Clips of different sizes or orientations are fitted into one frame with black bars; nothing is stretched or cropped. Saved as Merged Video.mp4.
Audio
The sizes in the demo are an example.
Compress Audio
Saves MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF and CAF files as smaller AAC files in M4A format: 160 kbps for stereo at Safe, 112 at Stronger and 80 at Maximum, and half that for mono. In Settings, WAV and AIFF can stay lossless at Safe, with Apple Lossless.
macOS can’t write MP3 files, so compressed MP3s become M4A.
Merge Audio…
Joins two or more audio files into Merged Audio.m4a, in the order you choose, with no gaps between them.
Privacy
Get Info before and after: the clean copy no longer says where it was downloaded from.
Remove Metadata
Saves a clean copy next to each file, such as IMG_1234 cleaned.jpg, without what the file says about where, when and on what it was made, or where it was downloaded from. The original isn’t changed. Everything below goes until you turn something off in Settings:
- Location
- GPS coordinates and place names.
- Dates and times
- When a photo was taken, or a document or recording was made or edited.
- Camera, device and software
- Camera and lens models, serial numbers and settings, and the app or computer that made it.
- Names, copyright and descriptions
- Author, artist, owner and last edited by, copyright, titles, captions, comments and keywords.
- Where From
- Get Info’s “Where from”: the address a file was downloaded from, such as a chat on chatgpt.com or claude.ai, and when.
- Finder tags and comments
- Tags, Finder comments, when it was last opened, and other information apps attach.
It works inside photos (JPEG, PNG, HEIC and TIFF), PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, audio and video. Photos keep their orientation and colours, and audio and video aren’t re-encoded. For other files, such as ZIP archives, it removes Where From and the Finder information, and the result says so.
Every copy is checked after it’s made, and one that still holds something chosen for removal isn’t kept. Signed, encrypted and archival (PDF/A) PDFs, password-protected Office documents, and videos with subtitles or chapters are left as they are.
Menu settings
In Settings you can turn off the actions you don’t use, change their order, or put them straight into Finder’s right-click menu instead of a FileMate submenu. You can also choose where compressing starts, the video format and how new files are named, and add a FileMate button to Finder’s toolbar with View › Customize Toolbar.