how to change the snippet to show <?php ?> when I type "php" instead of <php> </php> in html page?

Hi there,

It's Emmet in action -- standard behaviour for such context -- it creates "<anything></anything>" if you type "anything[TAB]".

To override -- create custom Live Template for HTML context -- it will use that instead (as long as expand key will be the same, which should be by default).

https://confluence.jetbrains.com/display/PhpStorm/Live+Templates+%28Snippets%29+in+PhpStorm