SharePoint 2010

Within 2010 the ‘create page’-action always results in the same default page-layout. SharePoint 2010 allows you to determine which page-layout should be used. When the publishing feature is enabled, the user is able to choose which page-layouts and site-templates can be used. Next to this, the ‘New Page Default Settings’ allows you to choose your page-layout.

Note that this does not influence the default page-layout for site templates.