So, here it is in all it’s glory:

Firstly I’ve assumed you have set up a snippet in cfeclipse as described here.

Now, you will notice there is an attribute int eh snippet description called “trigger text”, this is the the text that is used to specify your shortcut, it is however not used as the short cut itself but rather in combination with the actual snippet shortcut which at time of writing was CTRL + J.

So, having saved a snippet with a trigger text for example of “rk” you can cause the snippet to appear by typing anywhere on the page:

rk+CTRL+J

And your text should magically be replaced by the new snippet.

I use snippets extensively for things like custom function calls and other repetative tasks. CFeclipse loads the snippets view as part of it’s perspective, but when programming PHP Aptana does not by default. 

It’s taken me a while but I finally bothered to look for the snippets view in Aptana so they would be available when programming PHP.

To load snippets to your perspective go to:

“Window -> Show View -> Aptana standard views”.

Select “Snippets” and click OK.

Drag the view to where you want it in the perspective (I keep it next to my “Navigator” view)

Add a snippet by pressing control while clicking a section of text and selecting “Add to Snippets” you will be given the oportunity to edit the snippet, add it to a group, and specify replacement variables.

From there you can drag and drop snippets in Aptana to your hearts content!