`C-c c' brings up the template selection. If you press `C-g' to quit capturing, the buffer is not deleted. Instead the old window configuration is restored and the buffer is the second on the buffer stack. `C-x b' switches to the selection buffer again surprisingly. The appended patch fixes this issue. Carsten: this patch depends on the currently undocumented return value of `org-switch-to-buffer-other-window' (the newly created buffer). I'd suggest to either document it (see the second patch) or alter the patch: (setq buffer (get-buffer "*Org Select*"))