Org-mode emphasis markers: surround symbol

Question

Suppose I have this text, where | is point.

This is the te|xt.

Now I want to put the word text in bold, so I use Org keybindings and do C-c C-x C-f and pick *. This is what happens:

This is the te *|* xt.

Would it be possible to have the markers surround the symbol where point is? Like this:

This is the *text*|.

I know org-emphasize works on the active region, but it would be quicker if it was done automatically on the symbol where point is.

Answer 1

You just need a function that marks the current word when the region isn't already active:

(defun org-emphasize-dwim (&optional char)
  (interactive)
  (unless (region-active-p)
    (backward-word)
    (mark-word))
  (org-emphasize char))

You can rebind the keys to call this instead of the normal org-emphasize:

(define-key org-mode-map [remap org-emphasize] #'org-emphasize-dwim)

Answer 2

I use something like this:

(defun bold-region-or-point ()
  (interactive)
  (if (region-active-p)
      (progn
        (goto-char (region-end))
        (insert "*")
        (goto-char (region-beginning))
        (insert "*"))
    (insert "**")
    (backward-char)))

and bind it to a convenient key like:

(define-key global-map (kbd "s-b") 'bold-region-or-point)