It looks like user templates are processed like so:
1. check for a custom user setting ( chunk or file )
2. check for one that exists in the current manager/media/style/current_theme/ folder
3. use one found in manager/media/style/common/ folder
If you want to set user specific templates, try this plugin. A new tab will be created on the user edit screen to modify the tpl paths, although I only found the welcome tpl useful I added all three - remove irrelevent parts.
/* manager_custom_tpls.php
check event:
OnUserFormRender
*/
$e = &$modx->Event;
$out ='';
switch ( $e->name ) {
// for manager users any fields you add here will be automatically
// picked up and saved when the form is submitted
case 'OnUserFormRender':
$login_tpl = $modx->db->getValue( $modx->db->select( "setting_value", $modx->getFullTablename( 'user_settings' ), "user='".$id."' AND setting_name='manager_login_tpl'" ) );
$lockout_tpl = $modx->db->getValue( $modx->db->select( "setting_value", $modx->getFullTablename( 'user_settings' ), "user='".$id."' AND setting_name='manager_lockout_tpl'" ) );
$welcome_tpl = $modx->db->getValue( $modx->db->select( "setting_value", $modx->getFullTablename( 'user_settings' ), "user='".$id."' AND setting_name='manager_welcome_tpl'" ) );
$out ='
<!-- tab create -->
<div class="tab-page" id="tabManagertpls" style="padding-left:0; padding-right:0;">
<!-- tab title -->
<h2 class="tab">Custom tpls</h2>
<script type="text/javascript">tpUser.addTabPage( document.getElementById( "tabManagertpls" ) );</script>
<!-- tab content -->
<div class="sectionBody">
<p style="padding-top:20px;">
User templates are processed like so:<br>
1. check for a custom user setting ( chunk or file )<br>
2. check for one that exists in the current <u><b>manager/media/style/current_theme/</b></u> folder</br>
3. use one found in <u><b>manager/media/style/common/</b></u> folder
<br><br>
<b>Custom tpls accepted values:</b>
<ul>
<li>@CHUNK=custom_chunk_name</li>
<li>@FILE=../assets/templates/manager/custom_file ( .tpl, .txt, .html )</li>
</ul>
</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<td nowrap class="warning"><b>Login tpl</b></td>
<td><input type="text" name="manager_login_tpl" size="80" class="inputBox" value="'.$login_tpl.'"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap class="warning"><b>Lockout tpl</b></td>
<td><input type="text" name="manager_lockout_tpl" size="80" class="inputBox" value="'.$lockout_tpl.'"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap class="warning"><b>Welcome tpl</b></td>
<td><input type="text" name="manager_welcome_tpl" size="80" class="inputBox" value="'.$welcome_tpl.'"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<!-- end tab content -->
</div>
<!-- close tab -->';
break;
default: '';
}
$e->output( $out );
return;