Replace symbols in output without evaluation

Question

I found the Wolfram example for ExpandNCM but I want a more human-readable output form. I want to evaluate ExpandNCM, for example with ExpandNCM[(a**b+c**d)**(e**f+g**h)] = a**b**e**f + ..., but then I need to keep the order of all expression parts (abef+...) without those annoying **. It isn't allowed to change the position of abef to eabf or something like that. I tried to ExpandNCM[...]/. NonCommutativeMultiply:>Times but this doesn't work unfortunately.

Answer 1

expandNCM[(h : NonCommutativeMultiply)[a___, b_Plus, c___]] := 
 Distribute[h[a, b, c], Plus, h, Plus, ExpandNCM[h[##]] &]

expandNCM[(h : NonCommutativeMultiply)[a___, b_Times, c___]] := 
 Most[b] ExpandNCM[h[a, Last[b], c]]

expandNCM[a_] := ExpandAll[a]

To eliminate ** operators:

compressNCM[expr_] := expr /. NonCommutativeMultiply[x__] :>
   StringJoin@(ToString /@ {x})

To return to original notation:

toNCM[expr_] := 
 expr /. str_String :> 
   NonCommutativeMultiply @@ (ToExpression /@ Characters[str])

encm = expandNCM[(a ** b + c ** d) ** (e ** f + g ** h)]

a ** b ** e ** f + a ** b ** g ** h + c ** d ** e ** f + c ** d ** g ** h

% // compressNCM

abef + abgh + cdef + cdgh

However, the above expression cannot be operated on further without converting back to the normal form with toNCM. As written, the conversion back only works for single character factors.

encm == % // toNCM

True