I have come up with something simple that works:

    ("X" "ChangeLog README" entry (file+datetree "./00_README.org") "* %? \n   %U \n %f" :prepend t)

It looks like it will grow quickly into a long file, with four lines for each entry.  For now, it's exactly what I needed.  Proof of my instinct that 95% of the time, when I reach out for help, I almost immediately find a solution on my own.

I apology for wasted space and time.

Alan Davis

On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 11:06 AM Alan E. Davis <lngndvs@gmail.com> wrote:
[I posted almost this exact message to emacs-help by mistake.]

Many times I have envisioned having an org-mode function that works similarly to ChangeLog, to save notes as something like a 00_README.org file in-place, in any directory in which I am working.   Maybe my imagination has just escaped me, and something either already exists or is so trivial as to have escaped my notice. 

I almost laughed when I saw a ChangeLog exists for the latest org release, but then thought that ChangeLog is so perfect and ubiquitous as it should not be replaced. 

However, for my  plethora of little projects, scattered all over my home directory tree, it would be excellent to have a capture template to do this sort of thing, and store to any existing such file in the current directory, and be picked up readily by some simple keystroke.   As an example, I might be working on a graph of today's tides, in a new folder, and work away, and when all is said and done, make a note and add it to the 00_README.org file.  These would be convenient to find without digging through a lot of cruft  (and I have a lot of cruft).

It seems ChangeLog may sometimes save to a directory a the head of a tree of directories, though I'm not sure.  Perhaps an option would enable this to be done for a limited number of levels.

Certainly  something like this must have been implemented.  I think the main trick might be to use the current directory, and use many files with the same filename scattered around all over the place. 

I turn to the list out of a sense that I have already wasted enough time on trying to search for something of this nature.

Thank you,

Alan Davis
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             ---- Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)
                                                                                                       


--
[Fill in the blanks]

The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...--- outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.

             ---- Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)