How to add to FASTEX on Windows?

Question

I have just downloaded the FasTeX package of macros for LaTeX. It is excellent and is already speeding up my work.Briefly, it has a whole bunch of short text strings which, when followed by two space marks, enter a whole bunch of code. For instance bfig adds \begin{figure} to your document.

In a TUGboat article entitled Introduction to FasTeX it shows how to add more abbreviations on a Mac or on Unix, but I did not see any information how how to do this on a Windows machine using WinEdt. (e.g. I would like blistrt to create \begin{listing}[package = R, breaklines = TRUE].

Is there a way?

Answer 1

FasTeX
Was specially ported to windows for WinEdt so there are slight differences compared to the Mac(TypeIt4Me) and Unix (scedit for expect) reference versions at Caltech

To allow for International use the "trigger" key is a pair of keys (WinEdt=double space) and could be reduced to a single key (e.g. a space) for "plain Latin" (i.e. English) However in this time of increasing UTF8 usage that simplification is probably best avoided as likely to cause problems.

In LyX such abbreviated string aliases (aka macros) are stored within the document preamble which means there can be downstream issues. In FasTeX such abbreviated aliases are personal to the machine thus not kept in the TeX so are not a portability issue for others.

There are about 1500 alias shortcuts already defined but since its a very simple alias substitution scheme it is easy to add your own. In the Mac Typeit4Me version there is a front end GUI. However in the WinEdt version you simply use WinEdt, Obviously without FasTeX active so as not to interfere with saving its files.

When you download and install from http://www.winedt.org/macros/latex/FasTeX.html Follow the instructions and you should eventually see in the editor console

Installing...
OK:      File ActiveStrings-FasTeX.ini copied to ConfigEx.
OK:      File FasTeX_Templates.edt copied to Macros\Active Strings\FasTeX.
OK:      File FasTeX_Templates.edt.dat copied to Macros\Active Strings\FasTeX.
OK:      File ConfigEx\ActiveStrings.ini successfully updated.

Done...

You need to find where those working copies are most likely they are hidden in

your personal %appdata%\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 10\ConfigEx directory and
%appdata%\WinEdt Team\WinEdt 10\Macros\Active Strings\FasTeX folder
you should be able to paste those entries into explorer to check.

Best to make a local backup in case of needing to restore after any editing problems.

Open FasTeX_Templates.edt.dat and at the end (after the previous ending entry which by default may be -tabl-) leave a blank line then add for your need the trigger word, then definition followed again by your trigger word but wrapped in hyphens.

blistrt
\begin{listing}[package = R, breaklines = TRUE]
-blistrt-

Open ActiveStrings-FasTeX.ini and add after the last Macro Line (before the //END line) the following NOTE the trigger string blistrt MUST be followed by TWO SPACES

STRING="blistrt  "
  ENABLED=1
  MODE_FILTER="TeX"
  MACRO="[BeginGroup;Backspace(9);Ins('\begin{listing}[package = R, breaklines = TRUE]');EndGroup;]"

This last step is where your trigger word is assigned as a string to be executed