If you create your modx site from scratch, using your own templates, and the advanced install, there is nothing there when you start.

If you are using search engine friendly urls, however, the .htaccess rules will break your old site 404 rule, page missing to some url.

The problem? Modx defaults to sending missing page requests to the index/home page, 1 in id number. This is not what we want, we want an explicitly handled bad page request, both for search engines and to let users know that the url they requested does not exist.

First, create your 404 error page in the new documents section, note its document id number, you'll use that in the next step.

Now, go to the manager control panel, then select:

System => System Settings

In the search box, type in error_page
That will bring up the required item, click on the field where it says: 1
and change it to the id of your new page missing/404 error page.

Now requests for pages that do not exist will go to the error page, which should return the 404 error code to the requesting agent.

And that's that. I couldn't find these directions clearly explained anywhere, so here they are.
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