add a template file to custom theme I've added a new theme to my site and I've added a new content type called code_excerpt. Now, I've created a new template called code_excerpt.tpl.php and added it to my theme folder but when I created a new page using the newly created code_excerpt as content type it appears that the template used is still page.tpl.php as opposed to code_excerpt.tpl.php. As I'm pretty new to drupal, is there anything else that I need to do in order to get my content type to utilize that template? Any suggestion would be much appreciated.
I believe it needs to be node--code-excerpt.tpl.php

don't forget to clear the cache. 

Copy node.tpl.php to node--code-excerpt.tpl.php then modify code as necessary.

Here is my node.tpl.php file

&lt;?php
/**
 * @file
 * Default theme implementation to display a node.
 *
 * Available variables:
 * - $title: the (sanitized) title of the node.
 * - $content: An array of node items. Use render($content) to print them all, or
 *   print a subset such as render($content['field_example']). Use
 *   hide($content['field_example']) to temporarily suppress the printing of a
 *   given element.
 * - $user_picture: The node author's picture from user-picture.tpl.php.
 * - $date: Formatted creation date. Preprocess functions can reformat it by
 *   calling format_date() with the desired parameters on the $created variable.
 * - $name: Themed username of node author output from theme_username().
 * - $node_url: Direct url of the current node.
 * - $terms: the themed list of taxonomy term links output from theme_links().
 * - $display_submitted: whether submission information should be displayed.
 * - $classes: String of classes that can be used to style contextually through
 *   CSS. It can be manipulated through the variable $classes_array from
 *   preprocess functions. The default values can be one or more of the following:
 *   - node: The current template type, i.e., "theming hook".
 *   - node-[type]: The current node type. For example, if the node is a
 *     "Blog entry" it would result in "node-blog". Note that the machine
 *     name will often be in a short form of the human readable label.
 *   - node-teaser: Nodes in teaser form.
 *   - node-preview: Nodes in preview mode.
 *   The following are controlled through the node publishing options.
 *   - node-promoted: Nodes promoted to the front page.
 *   - node-sticky: Nodes ordered above other non-sticky nodes in teaser listings.
 *   - node-unpublished: Unpublished nodes visible only to administrators.
 * - $title_prefix (array): An array containing additional output populated by
 *   modules, intended to be displayed in front of the main title tag that
 *   appears in the template.
 * - $title_suffix (array): An array containing additional output populated by
 *   modules, intended to be displayed after the main title tag that appears in
 *   the template.
 *
 * Other variables:
 * - $node: Full node object. Contains data that may not be safe.
 * - $type: Node type, i.e. story, page, blog, etc.
 * - $comment_count: Number of comments attached to the node.
 * - $uid: User ID of the node author.
 * - $created: Time the node was published formatted in Unix timestamp.
 * - $classes_array: Array of html class attribute values. It is flattened
 *   into a string within the variable $classes.
 * - $zebra: Outputs either "even" or "odd". Useful for zebra striping in
 *   teaser listings.
 * - $id: Position of the node. Increments each time it's output.
 *
 * Node status variables:
 * - $view_mode: View mode, e.g. 'full', 'teaser'...
 * - $teaser: Flag for the teaser state (shortcut for $view_mode == 'teaser').
 * - $page: Flag for the full page state.
 * - $promote: Flag for front page promotion state.
 * - $sticky: Flags for sticky post setting.
 * - $status: Flag for published status.
 * - $comment: State of comment settings for the node.
 * - $readmore: Flags true if the teaser content of the node cannot hold the
 *   main body content.
 * - $is_front: Flags true when presented in the front page.
 * - $logged_in: Flags true when the current user is a logged-in member.
 * - $is_admin: Flags true when the current user is an administrator.
 *
 * Field variables: for each field instance attached to the node a corresponding
 * variable is defined, e.g. $node-&gt;body becomes $body. When needing to access
 * a field's raw values, developers/themers are strongly encouraged to use these
 * variables. Otherwise they will have to explicitly specify the desired field
 * language, e.g. $node-&gt;body['en'], thus overriding any language negotiation
 * rule that was previously applied.
 *
 * @see template_preprocess()
 * @see template_preprocess_node()
 * @see template_process()
 */
?&gt;
&lt;?php if (!$page): ?&gt;
  &lt;article id="node-&lt;?php print $node-&gt;nid; ?&gt;" class="&lt;?php print $classes; ?&gt; clearfix"&lt;?php print $attributes; ?&gt;&gt;
&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;
    &lt;?php if (!$page): ?&gt;
      &lt;header&gt;
    &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;
      &lt;?php print render($title_prefix); ?&gt;
      &lt;?php if (!$page): ?&gt;
      &lt;h2 class="title" &lt;?php print $title_attributes; ?&gt;&gt;&lt;a href="&lt;?php print $node_url; ?&gt;"&gt;&lt;?php print $title; ?&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
      &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;
      &lt;?php print render($title_suffix); ?&gt;

      &lt;?php if ($display_submitted): ?&gt;
        &lt;span class="submitted"&gt;&lt;?php print $submitted; ?&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;

    &lt;?php if (!$page): ?&gt;
      &lt;/header&gt;
  &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;

  &lt;div class="content"&lt;?php print $content_attributes; ?&gt;&gt;
    &lt;?php
      // Hide comments, tags, and links now so that we can render them later.
      hide($content['comments']);
      hide($content['links']);
      print render($content);
    ?&gt;
  &lt;/div&gt;

  &lt;?php if (!empty($content['links'])): ?&gt;
    &lt;footer&gt;
      &lt;?php print render($content['links']); ?&gt;
    &lt;/footer&gt;
  &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;

  &lt;?php print render($content['comments']); ?&gt;
&lt;?php if (!$page): ?&gt;
  &lt;/article&gt; &lt;!-- /.node --&gt;
&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;