Where do custom made templates files live?

I’m completely new at MODX (installed my first MODX website only this morning) but would like to know exactly how it works.
I’m most certainly not new at making templates or CSS files.
That’s why I would like to use my own editor (Coda) to edit templates and CSS files. I don’t want to use the Admin system for that purpose.
In the MODX distribution there is the directory "templates" which holds the directory "modxhost" and within that directory you have the template file "modxhost.tpl". This one is editable with my editor and the adaptations show up in the website. All’s well so far.

But when I make a new custom template through the admin system it shows up in the template list, but on the server I don’t see any files generated. The system presumably doesn’t make any template nor css file. And when I duplicate the directory "modxhost", and rename it, it also doesn’t show up in the admin system.

I would like to know how the template system works and like to know how all of MODX works. I just can’t seem to find any good and complete documentation.

(I’m using MODX 1.0.0)

modxhost.tpl is placed manually for backup. The templates in MODx are stored in the database.

There are good docs available here: http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/display/MODx096/Home

Feel free to ask questions in appropriate forums, and we will try to answer each one of them.

See the site in my sig and also this: http://www.sottwell.com/modx-from-the-inside.html.

Welcome to MODx.

I wished the templates were not in the database, but stored as xml-files. That’s way more transparant. Maybe in version 2?

I disagree that there are good docs available at http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/display/MODx096/Home. Especially the doc about templates isn’t any help. I must say that http://www.sottwell.com/modx-from-the-inside.html is almost perfect! Maybe it’s a good idea to use this information at http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/ ?

And many thanx for the "Welcome" and quick aid.