defining words

["Myron Gochnauer" goch@xxxxxxxx]

I've looked through the jumbo U2 index but haven't found what I need: an
improved version of XyWrite's DW (define word) command.

The ultimate aim: a single key-combination (e.g. Shft-Ctrl-I) that will
define the word under the cursor and then make it italic. It would be nice
if it would remove italics if they were already there, although this would
involve a number of complexities I haven't thought through.

For the sake of simplicity, the ultimate macro would first check to see if
something was already defined, and it it was, would simply insert or remove
italics for the defined text. (This would make it easy to handle longer
block of text.)

I would like to do the same thing for underlining and bold, too... easy
things once the basic XPL routine is done.

XyWrite's DW command includes too much. It defines a following space as part
of the word, as well as closing brackets and such things. I would prefer
the function to exclude spaces, brackets, braces, etc.

Has anyone done this already?

A related issue: automatically removing "old" formatting codes. When I am
entering a formatting code I often make mistakes or change my mind. I might
choose Bold and then decide I want Italic. It's easy to edit the codes in
expanded mode: just change +BO to +IT, or whatever. It would be helpful,
though, if there were a generalized routine that would first check to see
whether an alternate code already exists, and then *replace* the existing
code with a new one. I sometimes end up with 6 or 8 UF (use typeface)
commands at the start of a file when I trying to find the right typeface.

Myron