Defining a new environment that utilizes the optional package inside

Question

I have been using the optional package in order to conveniently create solutions in the same document. I had been writing solutions longhand by placing it inside:

\opt{optS}{\color{blue} \textbf{Solution:} asdfasdf \color{black}}

But I'd like to save time by creating an environment that includes the \opt{optS} call. I tried doing it with the following code:

\newenvironment{sol}
{ \opt{optS}{\color{blue} \textbf{Solution:}  }}

It appears to work nicely when I have optS selected when I compile. But if optO is used during compiling, the solutions still appear but now in black. Is there something I'm missing with including the \opt{optS} inside a new environment? Thank you for the help!

edit

Sorry for the lack of clarity. My intention is to have

\begin{sol} text of solution here \end{sol}

such that the \newenvironment{sol} wraps the "text of solution here" inside an \optS{ } so that the solution only appears when compiled with the optS optional argument. I additionally had it automatically making it blue and putting "Solution:" before it but that works fine. I think the real issue is that the \optS{ needs be included in the prior arguments to \newenvironment but the closing } needs to be in the ending arguments and I don't think \newenvironment allows unequal brackets in that way.

Answer 1

• it is not clear, what you like to have (please, clarify your question)
• in the case, that you need only word "solution" in the blue bold face text, than you can define for example \solution{\textcolor{blue}{\textbf{Solution~}}}
• in cases, that you like change text "solution" and its color, than you can consider \newcommand\optS[2][blue]{\textcolor{#1}{\textbf{#2}}}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\newcommand\solution{\textcolor{blue}{\textbf{Solution:~}}}
\newcommand\optS[2][blue]{\textcolor{#1}{\textbf{#2}}}

\begin{document}
\solution text of solution

\optS{Solution:} text of solution

\optS[red]{Comment:} text of comment
\end{document}

Answer 2

To ignore environment bodies, maybe you should be using the comment package instead of or in addition to the optional package.

\excludecomment{sol}
\opt{optS}{
  \renewenvironment{sol}
    {\par\noindent\color{blue}\textbf{Solution:}}
    {\color{black}\par}
}