diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/__init__.py b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/__init__.py
index dc2a7d2c81..886bfb6935 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/__init__.py
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ d['editor_format_toolbar'] = [('format-text-' + x) if x else x for x in (
     'justify-right', 'justify-fill')]
 d['spell_check_case_sensitive_search'] = False
 d['add_cover_preserve_aspect_ratio'] = False
+d['templates'] = {}
 del d
 
 ucase_map = {l:string.ascii_uppercase[i] for i, l in enumerate(string.ascii_lowercase)}
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/preferences.py b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/preferences.py
index 782b662061..f5c3f9fdfd 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/preferences.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/preferences.py
@@ -18,13 +18,14 @@ from PyQt4.Qt import (
     QListWidgetItem, QIcon, QWidget, QSize, QFormLayout, Qt, QSpinBox,
     QCheckBox, pyqtSignal, QDoubleSpinBox, QComboBox, QLabel, QFont,
     QFontComboBox, QPushButton, QSizePolicy, QHBoxLayout, QGroupBox,
-    QToolButton, QVBoxLayout, QSpacerItem)
+    QToolButton, QVBoxLayout, QSpacerItem, QTimer)
 
 from calibre.gui2.keyboard import ShortcutConfig
 from calibre.gui2.tweak_book import tprefs, toolbar_actions, editor_toolbar_actions, actions
 from calibre.gui2.tweak_book.editor.themes import default_theme, all_theme_names, ThemeEditor
 from calibre.gui2.tweak_book.spell import ManageDictionaries
 from calibre.gui2.font_family_chooser import FontFamilyChooser
+from calibre.gui2.tweak_book.widgets import Dialog
 
 class BasicSettings(QWidget):  # {{{
 
@@ -200,6 +201,10 @@ class EditorSettings(BasicSettings):
             ' time you open a HTML/CSS/etc. file for editing.'))
         l.addRow(lw)
 
+        self.tb = b = QPushButton(_('Change &templates'))
+        l.addRow(_('Change the templates for creating new files:'), b)
+        b.clicked.connect(lambda : TemplatesDialog(self).exec_())
+
         lw = self('inline_spell_check')
         lw.setText(_('Show misspelled words underlined in the code view'))
         lw.setToolTip('<p>' + _(
@@ -513,6 +518,77 @@ class ToolbarSettings(QWidget):
 
 # }}}
 
+class TemplatesDialog(Dialog):  # {{{
+
+    def __init__(self, parent=None):
+        self.ignore_changes = False
+        Dialog.__init__(self, _('Customize templates'), 'customize-templates', parent=parent)
+
+    def setup_ui(self):
+        from calibre.gui2.tweak_book.templates import DEFAULT_TEMPLATES
+        from calibre.gui2.tweak_book.editor.text import TextEdit
+        self.l = l = QFormLayout(self)
+        self.setLayout(l)
+
+        self.syntaxes = s = QComboBox(self)
+        s.addItems(sorted(DEFAULT_TEMPLATES.iterkeys()))
+        s.setCurrentIndex(s.findText('html'))
+        l.addRow(_('Choose the &type of template to edit:'), s)
+        s.currentIndexChanged.connect(self.show_template)
+
+        self.helpl = la = QLabel(_(
+            'The variables {0} and {1} will be replaced with the title and author of the book. {2}'
+            ' is where the cursor will be positioned.').format('{TITLE}', '{AUTHOR}', '%CURSOR%'))
+        la.setWordWrap(True)
+        l.addRow(la)
+
+        self.save_timer = t = QTimer(self)
+        t.setSingleShot(True), t.setInterval(100)
+        t.timeout.connect(self._save_syntax)
+
+        self.editor = e = TextEdit(self)
+        l.addRow(e)
+        e.textChanged.connect(self.save_syntax)
+
+        self.show_template()
+
+        self.bb.clear()
+        self.bb.addButton(self.bb.Close)
+        self.rd = b = self.bb.addButton(self.bb.RestoreDefaults)
+        b.clicked.connect(self.restore_defaults)
+        l.addRow(self.bb)
+
+    @property
+    def current_syntax(self):
+        return unicode(self.syntaxes.currentText())
+
+    def show_template(self):
+        from calibre.gui2.tweak_book.templates import raw_template_for
+        syntax = self.current_syntax
+        self.ignore_changes = True
+        try:
+            self.editor.load_text(raw_template_for(syntax), syntax=syntax)
+        finally:
+            self.ignore_changes = False
+
+    def save_syntax(self):
+        if self.ignore_changes:
+            return
+        self.save_timer.start()
+
+    def _save_syntax(self):
+        custom = tprefs['templates']
+        custom[self.current_syntax] = unicode(self.editor.toPlainText())
+        tprefs['templates'] = custom
+
+    def restore_defaults(self):
+        custom = tprefs['templates']
+        custom.pop(self.current_syntax, None)
+        tprefs['templates'] = custom
+        self.show_template()
+        self._save_syntax()
+# }}}
+
 class Preferences(QDialog):
 
     def __init__(self, gui, initial_panel=None):
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/templates.py b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/templates.py
index 5024819bb5..69bd18fdb9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/templates.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/templates.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ __license__ = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2013, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
 
 from calibre import prepare_string_for_xml
-from calibre.gui2.tweak_book import current_container
+from calibre.gui2.tweak_book import current_container, tprefs
 
 DEFAULT_TEMPLATES = {
     'html':
@@ -33,12 +33,15 @@ DEFAULT_TEMPLATES = {
 
 }
 
+def raw_template_for(syntax):
+    return tprefs['templates'].get(syntax, DEFAULT_TEMPLATES.get(syntax, ''))
+
 def template_for(syntax):
     mi = current_container().mi
     data = {
         'TITLE':mi.title,
         'AUTHOR': ' & '.join(mi.authors),
     }
-    template = DEFAULT_TEMPLATES.get(syntax, '')
-    return template.format(**{k:prepare_string_for_xml(v, True) for k, v in data.iteritems()})
+    return raw_template_for(syntax).format(
+        **{k:prepare_string_for_xml(v, True) for k, v in data.iteritems()})