Arbortext Editor provides command variables in a manner similar to the UNIX shells. Command variables are used to specify a string whose exact value may not be known at the time. For example, suppose you want to make a command that tells you the current line number. You can't specify this value exactly because the current line number varies with the position of the cursor. To solve this problem, use a variable to indicate the cursor location.

Some variables are created within Arbortext Editor, while others are created outside Arbortext Editor as environment variables.