diff --git a/docs/settings.rst b/docs/settings.rst
index 6780c6ae..62c70015 100644
--- a/docs/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/settings.rst
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ Setting name (default value)                        What does it do?
                                                     supported extensions.
 `OUTPUT_PATH` (``'output/'``)                       Where to output the generated files.
 `PATH` (``None``)                                   Path to look at for input files.
+`PAGE_DIR' (``'pages'``)                            Directory to look at for pages.
+`PAGE_EXCLUDES' (``()``)                            A list of directories to exclude when looking for pages.
+`ARTICLE_DIR' (``''``)                              Directory to look at for articles.
+`ARTICLE_EXCLUDES': (``('pages',)``)                A list of directories to exclude when looking for articles.
 `PDF_GENERATOR` (``False``)                         Set to True if you want to have PDF versions
                                                     of your documents. You will need to install
                                                     `rst2pdf`.
diff --git a/pelican/generators.py b/pelican/generators.py
index 6ba12cf4..ac2cd865 100644
--- a/pelican/generators.py
+++ b/pelican/generators.py
@@ -211,10 +211,10 @@ class ArticlesGenerator(Generator):
     def generate_context(self):
         """change the context"""
 
-        # return the list of files to use
-        files = self.get_files(self.path, exclude=['pages', ])
         all_articles = []
-        for f in files:
+        for f in self.get_files(
+                os.path.join(self.path, self.settings['ARTICLE_DIR']),
+                exclude=self.settings['ARTICLE_EXCLUDES']):
             try:
                 content, metadata = read_file(f, settings=self.settings)
             except Exception, e:
@@ -316,7 +316,9 @@ class PagesGenerator(Generator):
 
     def generate_context(self):
         all_pages = []
-        for f in self.get_files(os.sep.join((self.path, 'pages'))):
+        for f in self.get_files(
+                os.path.join(self.path, self.settings['PAGE_DIR']),
+                exclude=self.settings['PAGE_EXCLUDES']):
             try:
                 content, metadata = read_file(f)
             except Exception, e:
diff --git a/pelican/settings.py b/pelican/settings.py
index 8cb06e90..b38a99fd 100644
--- a/pelican/settings.py
+++ b/pelican/settings.py
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ from pelican import log
 DEFAULT_THEME = os.sep.join([os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)),
                               "themes/notmyidea"])
 _DEFAULT_CONFIG = {'PATH': None,
+                   'ARTICLE_DIR': '',
+                   'ARTICLE_EXCLUDES': ('pages',),
+                   'PAGE_DIR': 'pages',
+                   'PAGE_EXCLUDES': (),
                    'THEME': DEFAULT_THEME,
                    'OUTPUT_PATH': 'output/',
                    'MARKUP': ('rst', 'md'),
diff --git a/tests/test_contents.py b/tests/test_contents.py
index b44d151f..e058e721 100644
--- a/tests/test_contents.py
+++ b/tests/test_contents.py
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 from __future__ import with_statement
 try:
-    from unittest2 import TestCase
+    from unittest2 import TestCase, skip
 except ImportError, e:
-    from unittest import TestCase
+    from unittest import TestCase, skip
 
 from pelican.contents import Page
 from pelican.settings import _DEFAULT_CONFIG
@@ -94,6 +94,18 @@ class TestPage(TestCase):
             locale = 'ja_JP.utf8'
         page_kwargs['settings']['DATE_FORMATS'] = {'jp':(locale,'%Y-%m-%d(%a)')}
         page_kwargs['metadata']['lang'] = 'jp'
-        page = Page( **page_kwargs)
-        self.assertEqual(page.locale_date, u'2015-09-13(\u65e5)')
-        # above is unicode in Japanese: 2015-09-13(“ú)
+
+        import locale as locale_module
+        try:
+            page = Page( **page_kwargs)
+            self.assertEqual(page.locale_date, u'2015-09-13(\u65e5)')
+            # above is unicode in Japanese: 2015-09-13(“ú)
+        except locale_module.Error:
+            # The constructor of ``Page`` will try to set the locale to
+            # ``ja_JP.utf8``. But this attempt will failed when there is no
+            # such locale in the system. You can see which locales there are
+            # in your system with ``locale -a`` command.
+            #
+            # Until we find some other method to test this functionality, we
+            # will simply skip this test.
+            skip("There is no locale %s in this system." % locale)
diff --git a/tools/pelican_quickstart.py b/tools/pelican_quickstart.py
index 56c22f10..04fc20be 100755
--- a/tools/pelican_quickstart.py
+++ b/tools/pelican_quickstart.py
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ html: clean $$(OUTPUTDIR)/index.html
 \t@echo 'Done'
 
 $$(OUTPUTDIR)/%.html:
-\t$$(PELICAN) $$(INPUTDIR) -o $$(OUTPUTDIR) -s $$(CONFFILE)
+\t$$(PELICAN) $$(INPUTDIR) -o $$(OUTPUTDIR) -s $$(CONFFILE) $$(PELICANOPTS)
 
 clean:
 \trm -fr $$(OUTPUTDIR)
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ DEFAULT_PAGINATION = $default_pagination
 
 CONF = {
     'pelican' : 'pelican',
-    'pelicanopts' : None,
+    'pelicanopts' : '',
     'basedir': '.',
     'ftp_host': 'localhost',
     'ftp_user': 'anonymous',
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ CONF = {
     'ssh_user': 'root',
     'ssh_target_dir': '/var/www',
     'dropbox_dir' : '~/Dropbox/Public/',
-    'default_pagination' : 7,
+    'default_pagination' : 10,
     'lang': 'en'
 }