Is there a quicker way of doing boldface in math mode instead of typing out \mathbf{} each time? (It gets cumbersome when you denote simple vectors with boldface…)
[Tex/LaTex] Faster way of writing \mathbf
boldmath-mode
Related Solutions
I use yasnippet. awesome package for inserting snippets. there is latex snippet bundle you can use. Infact there is already a written snippet to insert exactly what you are asking for.
On a case-by-case basis, it is possible to typeset text within math mode using \textrm{...} or \mathrm{...}, the latter being used predominantly for typesetting units or symbols and not pure text (since it gobbles spaces that are not escaped). \mbox{...} is another alternative to \textrm{...}, since it resets its contents to text mode by default. Here are some examples:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Here is a formula: $x=\exp(\log \mathrm{x})$
Here is another: $\sin^2 t+\cos^2 t = \textrm{famous identity}$
\end{document}
The above font changes do not work that well in general, since switching to a different font when using sub- and superscripts, say, does not always scale as expected. There are ways around it though. For example, using \text{...} from the amstext package (automatically loaded by amsmath - see the AMS package dependencies), which switches to the appropriate font size via \mathchoice:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}% http://ctan.org/pkg/amsmath
% amsmath loads the amstext package by default
\begin{document}
Here is a formula: $x=y^{abc}$
Here it is again: $x=y^{\mbox{abc}}$
Compare that to: $x=y^{\text{abc}}$
\end{document}
Best Answer
There's a really cheesy way of saving keystrokes that is no longer than Todd's answer but just as comprehensive as Yiannis's:
Explanation: a control sequence whose name is a non-letter doesn't require either spaces or braces after it (unless of course you want it to act on multiple tokens, like plain
ab; a macro such as my\abwill work just fine, though).