# Keyboard entry of square bracketed matrices in text cells, How to?

In order to produce square bracketed matrices I execute the following code at the bottom of my notebook, then copy and paste it into the text cell where I'm composing:

TemplateBox[{
GridBox[{{"a", "b"}, {"c", "d"}}]}
, "Identity"
, DisplayFunction ->
(RowBox[{
StyleBox["[", SpanMaxSize -> \[Infinity]]
, #1
, StyleBox["]", SpanMaxSize -> \[Infinity]]
}] &)] // DisplayForm


I then manipulate the content of the matrix, and the brackets resize as desired. This is fairly cumbersome. Is there a way to accomplish the same thing using keyboard shortcuts?

Mathematica 10.4.0.0 under Windows 10.

• – anderstood Nov 2 '16 at 19:21

You could use InputAliases (or InputAutoReplacements) to make this easier. For instance:

CurrentValue[EvaluationNotebook[], InputAliases] = DeleteDuplicates @ Append[
CurrentValue[EvaluationNotebook[], InputAliases],
"bmat" -> RowBox[{
StyleBox["[", SpanMaxSize->Infinity],
GridBox[{{"\[SelectionPlaceholder]","\[Placeholder]"},{"\[Placeholder]","\[Placeholder]"}}],
StyleBox["]",SpanMaxSize->Infinity]
}]
];


Here is an animation of the alias in action: