If you create a folder in Nautilus, it's supposed to highlight the name so you can type in the name of the new folder. However, the more files in a directory, the longer this process takes. With something like 1,000 files in a directory, it takes a very long time, and the behaviour is not optimal if you start typing the name of the folder too soon. This means that if I create a new folder that I want to call XYZ, the following often occurs:
(1) I select File -> Create Folder
(2) Nautilus starts slowly refreshing my big folder
(3) Before Nautilus highlights the folder called "untitled folder", I type "XYZ"
(4) Nautilus stops refreshing my folder and assumes that I'm looking for an existing file or folder entitled XYZ, so it highlights the first file in my directory that starts with XYZ (e.g. "XYZfile.txt").
In order to recover, I have to hit F5, wait for the folder to refresh, find "untitled folder", select "Edit -> Rename" and then type XYZ.
The preferred behaviour would be that Nautilus assumes that any characters typed after "Create Folder" are the name of the new folder, not the search criteria within the folder. If that is not possible, then "Create Folder" should display a pop-up window that prompts for the name of the folder to be created.
I just created a file in ~/.gnome2/