Flew the Dash-8 for years, and that autoflight system will track whatever is under the head of the needle in VOR mode. The needle is your way of "talking" to the AFCS and telling it which way you would like to go. If you set the "tail of the needle" to your planned VOR course on that type of system, your autopilot will take you in the direction it thinks you want to go, which is towards the head of the needle.
Could be bad if there is a mountain that way.
Used to fly lots of procedure turns, etc. in that aircraft and the needle always pointed in the direction we actually wanted to track the course ("Turn, Time, Twist, Throttle, Talk", etc.). If you are not currently flying an aircraft with this type of AFCS but expect to at some point in the future, it would be a good idea to avoid building a habit pattern that could cause a negative transfer of learning as you transition later on.
Current A/C is all about the magenta line, so these skills are fading fast. X-Plane helps keep the memory sharp, though, I tell you!