"ShortBoxForm"

"ShortBoxForm" is an option for notebooks that determines if box expressions, used to represent two-dimensional forms in a notebook, are translated into a more compact notation when the notebook is saved.

With the default setting "ShortBoxForm" True, box expressions are saved in a more compact notation called ShortBoxForm. This reduces the disk space needed to store the notebook.

With the setting "ShortBoxForm" False, the notation for box expressions is not converted to short box form when the notebook is saved. The short box form, though more compact, is less intuitive, which makes it harder to read and interpret. Hence the conventional notation is preferred when viewing and editing expressions in a notebook from within Mathematica.

For example, an input cell containing the expression would be displayed as: Cell[BoxData[\(a\^2 + b\^2\)], "Input"] with "ShortBoxForm" True; and as Cell[BoxData[RowBox[{SuperscriptBox["a", "2"],+",SuperscriptBox["b", "2"]}]], "Input"] with "ShortBoxForm" False.