diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/Base.java b/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
index afa62e18b..ac3616346 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
@@ -652,7 +652,10 @@ public class Base {
 
     // Make an empty pde file
     File newbieFile = new File(newbieDir, newbieName + ".ino");
-    new FileOutputStream(newbieFile);  // create the file
+    if (!newbieFile.createNewFile()) {
+      throw new IOException();
+    }
+    FileUtils.copyFile(new File(System.getProperty("user.dir"), "TemplateSketch.ino"), newbieFile);
     return newbieFile.getAbsolutePath();
   }
 
diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/helpers/FileUtils.java b/app/src/processing/app/helpers/FileUtils.java
index fb80d2e4f..fc12616b0 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/helpers/FileUtils.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/helpers/FileUtils.java
@@ -35,6 +35,27 @@ public class FileUtils {
     return false;
   }
 
+  public static void copyFile(File source, File dest) throws IOException {
+    FileInputStream fis = null;
+    FileOutputStream fos = null;
+    try {
+      fis = new FileInputStream(source);
+      fos = new FileOutputStream(dest);
+      byte[] buf = new byte[4096];
+      int readBytes = -1;
+      while ((readBytes = fis.read(buf, 0, buf.length)) != -1) {
+        fos.write(buf, 0, readBytes);
+      }
+    } finally {
+      if (fis != null) {
+        fis.close();
+      }
+      if (fos != null) {
+        fos.close();
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   public static void copy(File sourceFolder, File destFolder) throws IOException {
     for (File file : sourceFolder.listFiles()) {
       File destFile = new File(destFolder, file.getName());
@@ -44,24 +65,7 @@ public class FileUtils {
         }
         copy(file, destFile);
       } else {
-        FileInputStream fis = null;
-        FileOutputStream fos = null;
-        try {
-          fis = new FileInputStream(file);
-          fos = new FileOutputStream(destFile);
-          byte[] buf = new byte[4096];
-          int readBytes = -1;
-          while ((readBytes = fis.read(buf, 0, buf.length)) != -1) {
-            fos.write(buf, 0, readBytes);
-          }
-        } finally {
-          if (fis != null) {
-            fis.close();
-          }
-          if (fos != null) {
-            fos.close();
-          }
-        }
+        copyFile(file, destFile);
       }
     }
   }
diff --git a/build/build.xml b/build/build.xml
index dfff2e7ef..8ac613b3e 100644
--- a/build/build.xml
+++ b/build/build.xml
@@ -97,6 +97,9 @@
       <fileset dir="shared/examples" />
     </copy>
     
+    <!-- copy shared template -->
+    <copy file="shared/TemplateSketch.ino" todir="${target.path}/" />
+    
     <!-- Unzip documentation -->
     <unzip dest="${target.path}" src="shared/reference.zip" overwrite="false"/>
     
diff --git a/build/shared/TemplateSketch.ino b/build/shared/TemplateSketch.ino
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c9c84ceca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/shared/TemplateSketch.ino
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+void setup() {
+  // put your setup code here, to run once:
+
+}
+
+void loop() {
+  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly: 
+  
+}