My custom shortcut for Escape Key is not parsing in a text cell

Question

I often use the escape key to quickly write mathematical notation in a text cell(e.g. $\pi$ is written when pressing escape+"pi"+escape). I find the escape key annoying to use because it's too far for my fingers to stretch, so I wrote some code to use "/" instead.

The code below replicates the escape key using "/" (to get the alias delimiter). However, for some reason, it does not parse upon the second press of the "/" key. Unfortunately, my solution requires an extra press of any key. For example, to get $\pi$ I have to press "/" then "pi" then "/" and then also the space bar (or any other key). The escape key does not require the extra keypress.

SetOptions[SelectedNotebook[], 
  NotebookEventActions -> {{"KeyDown", "/"} :>
     
     NotebookWrite[InputNotebook[], "\\[AliasDelimiter]"]}
  ];

I'm looking for a way to force the parse to happen upon the second press of "/" without the extra keypress so that it truly replicates the escape key. I'm looking for a solution that uses NotebookEventActions. I know there is an alternative way of editing the keyeventtranslations.nb, however, I am looking for a solution that uses NotebookEventActions specifically.

Any ideas?

P.S. I tried programmatically writing in a space and then deleting it, but it still doesn't parse until I physically press a key on my keyboard.

Answer 1

This works in a text cell. I added functionality to move the current selection to a placeholder automatically if one exists (this feature to move to a placeholder broke in Mathematica years ago).

SetOptions[InputNotebook[], NotebookEventActions -> {
   
   {"KeyDown", ">"} :>
    {
     FrontEndTokenExecute["ShortNameDelimiter"];
     FrontEndTokenExecute["MovePrevious"];
     FrontEndTokenExecute["MoveNextPlaceHolder"];
     FrontEndTokenExecute["MoveNext"];
     If[
      ListQ@
        Part[
         "InlineCellPosition" /. 
          FrontEndExecute@FrontEnd`CellInformation[SelectedCells[]], 
         1] == True,
      FrontEndTokenExecute["Tab"], None];
     }
   }
 ]