You have the fallback system correct, and you can also use the override system to override spesific templates under spesific conditions (node_id, class and so on). Override templates is placed in the override directory, and those also have the same fallback functionality.
What do I do if I want to change the way a certain node gets rendered? I found in /base/override/templates a bunch of .tpl files. If I change them there, it will have a global effect, but what if I just want the change on one site? I tried throwing a new article.tpl file into /design/mysite/templates/ but it didn't work.
Also, say I create my own content class. I have to make a template for that, but where do I put it and how do I name it?
You can change the file in base/override, but really what you should do (a little more complex, but more portable and upgrade-proof) is create your own design folder. Any files in that folder (which has a similar structure to base/ design) will automatically override a file with the same name in the base and standard design folders.
To override a single node, you will want to add an override to the override.ini.append.php in your settings/siteaccess/your_site folder. There are some others in there that will give you an example of the formatting, and there are docs on this site about overrides.
Match[node]=105 or something is the line that will tell it to only apply to one page. You can override based on [class], [section], and several other factors.
Sorry - just read your original post. You should have a design/plain folder (which you can rename btw if you update the site.ini.append.php for your site to the new name for the design) which you will want to edit files specific to your site. There is an override folder in there, and if you wanted to change the layout of the full view of the folder class, you would edit the plain/override/templates/full/folder.tpl file. If there is not one there, copy the on the base design, and save in your plain design and edit it there.
Great. Thanks a lot for your help. And as far as building a new class, do I just create a file called my_class_name.tpl and put it in my /design/plain/templates?
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