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Re: using the escape key for shortcuts

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg28602] Re: [mg28573] using the escape key for shortcuts
• From: "P.J. Hinton" <paulh at wolfram.com>
• Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 00:17:28 -0400 (EDT)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> one of my favorite things about Mathematica is the few shortcuts i
> know, like for greek letters:
>
> <ESC>a<ESC>     produces an alpha
> <ESC>pi<ESC>     produces a pi
>
> i want to know more, and found a file UnicodeCharacters.tr which looks
> like a goldmine of shortcuts.  however, they don't seem to be working.
>
> for instance, i would be very interested to know how to enter fractions
> without clicking on the palette.  there seems to be a definition for
> FractionBox, but when i try:
>
> <ESC>FractionBox<ESC>
>
> nothing happens.  perhaps i'm not using the information from this file
> correctly.  can someone tell me how to get a fractionbox without
> clicking the palette?  i can probably figure the rest out once i know
> that one.  :)

Many of the two-dimensional typesetting features are mapped to Ctrl key
shortcuts rather than escape-key aliases.  For example, to start a
fraction, you enter the numerator and then type Ctrl-/.  Enter your
denominator and then hit Ctrl-Space to get out of the denominator.

A walkthrough of several two-dimensional editing operations are listed in
the online help.  You can access this information by evaluating the
expression:

FrontEndExecute[
  FrontEnd`HelpBrowserLookup[
   "OtherInformation",
   "Fractions"
  ]
]

If you want to define escape-key input aliases, you will need to use the
InputAliases option, which is documented in the online help, too.

FrontEndExecute[
  FrontEnd`HelpBrowserLookup[
   "OtherInformation",
   "InputAliases"
  ]
]

-- 
P.J. Hinton
User Interface Programmer                         paulh at wolfram.com
Wolfram Research, Inc.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone.