# AUCTeX:  a inserts \alpha{}: How can one omit the curly braces to be inserted?

According to an AUCTeX reference card,  a inserts \alpha{} and this works well in my setup. I just don't see any reason I ever used a greek letter with curly braces. This means I always have to delete them. Is there a way to have AUCTeX insert just \alpha when typing  a?

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If you do it inside math mode, e.g. inside  or , it will omit the curly braces. –  N.N. Apr 8 '12 at 20:54
Great! I should have experimented a bit more first :-) –  Marius Hofert Apr 8 '12 at 20:57
You should have but this is a problem I am sure others have stumbled upon too so I think the question make sense. Since it helped you I converted my comment into an answer. –  N.N. Apr 9 '12 at 6:47

There may not be any reason to disable this behavior since the braces are omitted if used inside math mode. When you do  a inside any structure that enables math mode, such as inside , , equation or align, AUCTeX will omit the braces. For example the behavior for equation is the following:

1. (cursor) is not really in the code but just to mark where the cursor is.

$$(cursor)$$

2. You press  a.

$$\alpha$$

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You can also put the line

(setq TeX-insert-braces nil)
`

into your init file to keep the braces from ever being inserted when AUCTeX inserts a macro.

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