Setting title via included file

I have a page that includes a file in the middle, but I wish to set the title of the page based on a variable set in the included file-- is this possible? PHP processes the page sequentially, so if I have $foo = Title in the included file, it is too late to use it for the title of the main document. I thought output buffering might be the key, but it doesn't seem to work. Should it? Basically, I was doing this for the output buffering: *** function fixtitle($buffer) { return (str_replace("XXX", $pagetitle, $buffer)); } ob_start("fixtitle"); ?> <html> <title>XXX</title> ... <? include("file_that_sets_pagetitle.inc") ?> ... <?php ob_end_flush(); ?> c