I am using the Scp_Flex WP theme. I see now that the designer did not give this theme any page templates. The theme came with no page.php file, archive.php file, etc. It does have an index.php, which (if I understand the Codex) should be the default. The resulting pages is formatted exactly like a post.
So, I went to the Default theme, and copied the page.php file from that theme to my Scp_Flex folder. I named the file page-normal.php. Then, based on what you said above, I added the additional introductory lines of php at the top of the file.
Below is what the file looks like now:with the first php command being what I just added, and the rest being what I copied from Defaul page.php.
The file still does NOT appear in the drop down menu on the Write/Page screen that has the heading "Add A New Custom Field to this Post." Is that where I should be looking?
<?php
/*
Template Name: Page-normal
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="content" class="narrowcolumn">
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
<div class="entrytext">
<?php the_content('<p class="serif">Read the rest of this page »'); ?>
<?php link_pages('Pages: ', '', 'number'); ?>
</div>
</div>
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>
<?php edit_post_link('Edit this entry.', '', ''); ?>
</div>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>