The commands found in the apteqn.cf file control the appearance of the Equation Editor and Palette, determine the format and appearance of output, and determine the key mappings. The settings for the Equation Editor are defined in a configuration file at either the user or system level. You can customize the Equation Editor display by creating your own apteqn.cf file which is saved at the user level.

When the Equation Editor starts up, it first looks in your application data directory for a file named apteqn.cf. The application data directory is the directory where your operating system stores user-specific data. This is usually C:\Document and Settings\user_name\Application Data\PTC\Arbortext\Editor.

The Equation Editor writes a configuration file to this directory the first time you select Save Configuration from the File menu. Subsequently, the Equation Editor relies on your application data directory file. Its location is displayed in the status bar of the Equation Editor dialog box. If changes are made to the system level configuration file after your file was created, you will not have access to these changes unless you remove or update the apteqn.cf file in your application data directory directory.

This configuration file applies to you only. If no local file is found, the Equation Editor uses the system-wide file, which is usually located in the lib subdirectory of Arbortext-path. This file contains the defaults for anyone who does not have their own apteqn.cf file.

The apteqn.cf file is written in ASCII and can be edited directly by the user. It is divided into five main sections:

Most sections end with a corresponding ending statement (for example, :menu ends with :end_menu). The exception is :version, which does not require an ending statement since all information appears on a single line.

If you do make a mistake in changing the settings in an apteqn.cf file, you can delete the file and then generate another. Be sure to keep a backup copy of the system-wide apteqn.cf.