Thanks to everyone for the varied and thoughtful responses. I didn't think of backquotes, but I know about them from Scheme, and no, they shouldn't work in this case. Very frustrating. org-capture clearly has the original buffer handy (for %a stuff) yet I can't get it out of there without hacking the org code, which I am loathe to do. Hmmm. I'll think some more. If I come up with anything; I'll report it. Cheers. Fil 2011/2/21 Sébastien Vauban > Hi Richard, > > Richard Lawrence wrote: > > Sébastien Vauban writes: > >> "Filippo A. Salustri" wrote: > >>> I would really like to be able to vary the file into which a captured > item > >>> goes. Specifically, I'd like to insert the item into whatever file I > was > >>> visiting when I started the capture. > > > >> You have to use backquotes so that expressions are considered as code to > >> execute, instead of data. See Emacs manual. > > > > I'm not sure that backquotes will do what the OP wants. Backquotes will > > allow the OP to compute the value of a target file at the time the (setq > > org-capture templates ...) form is evaluated. The OP needs a way to > > determine the target file at the time of capture (right?), not at the > time > > the variable is set. > > You're definitely right. I missed the distinction "at Org launch time" vs > "at > execution time"... Pull my answer off the records ;-) > > Best regards, > Seb > > -- > Sébastien Vauban > > > _______________________________________________ > Emacs-orgmode mailing list > Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. > Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode > -- Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng. Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Ryerson University 350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749 Fax: 416/979-5265 Email: salustri@ryerson.ca http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/