Sounds like it could possibly be a config problem. See if you have ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs. If you have it, look for (or add) XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR and set it to your Templates folder:
Code:
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR=/home/john/Templates
Otherwise, try creating the file and adding that line.
That file sets directories for various things -- like a My Documents, of sorts, for Gnome.