This documentation refers to PhraseExpress v17 beta. The documentation for the production version 16 is available here.
Insert phrases
Phrase can be executed with a trigger, such as pressing a hotkey or an "autotext" text shortcut associated to the desired phrase or by selecting it from the phrase menu.
Trigger
Use a trigger (hotkey, autotext) you have defined for the phrase:
Phrase menu
The phrase menu provides access your phrases in everyday use:
Opening the phrase menu
To open the phrase menu…
- left-click the PhraseExpress task bar icon to show all phrases, beginning from the root level.
- press the customizable phrase menu hotkey ALT+SPACE.
- press the trigger assigned to a phrase folder or multiple phrases.
- If AutoComplete is enabled, start typing a frequently used word/sentence.
To discard the menu, press ESC or click anywhere outside the phrase menu.
Items, that are configured to be hidden, restricted to specific programs or users may not be shown in the phrase menu.
Finding a phrase
To find an item in the phrase menu…
- start typing any part of the description to narrow down the menu to items matching our text input.
- use the Arrow-Down/Up keys to select the next/previous item.
- press Page-Up/Down or the mouse scroll wheel to scroll through the menu in larger steps.
- press Home- or End to jump to the very first or very last item.
- press Arrow-Right-key to jump to and open the first sub-folder. To return to the parent level, press Arrow-Left.
If not all elements fit in the phrase menu, small black rectangles will appear at the top or bottom. You can navigate through the menu page by page using the PageUp and PageDown buttons.
To resize the phrase menu, pull its borders to the desired height and width.
Hidden or program- or user access-restricted phrases are filtered out of the phrase menu.
Executing a phrase
To insert the selected phrase…
- Click the phrase.
- Press the customizable confirmation hotkey TAB.
- Press the optional "quick key" to directly select and execute a phrase, e.g. Num1+Num9.
- To insert a formatted phrase without formatting. SHIFT-click the phrase.
- CTRL-click a phrase to copy its content into to the clipboard (vs. pasting it into the target application). This helps to insert a phrase in case of application focus problems.
Content-sensitive features
Right-click any item in the phrase menu for additional options:
- Insert text with or without formatting.
- Fill the clipboard with the selected text.
- Create a new email to the email address contained in the phrase.
- Open web browser if the phrase contains any URL.
- Open folder in Windows Explorer if the items contains any file path.
Positioning the menu
Phrase menus appear near the mouse or text cursor as configured in the program settings.
To show the menu at a static position, click and drag the title bar of a phrase menu that has been triggered by autotext or hotkey, to the desired position. PhraseExpress will ask you to remember this position:
To reset the static position, move the phrase menu again and select "No" when being prompted.
Desktop menus
Phrase menus automatically disappear after you selected a phrase. Alternatively, you can pin phrase menus onto the desktop:
Desktop menus keep staying on the screen after you selected a phrase for quick access.
To pin a phrase menu to desktop, click the pin symbol in the top right of any phrase menu.
Double-click the title bar to expand/collapse desktop menus. To resize a desktop menu, click & drag the edges.
Desktop menus can show/hide automatically together with specific programs.
Example: A desktop menu may contain various bank account information and can optionally be displayed only, if you open a specific banking website or banking software. It automatically hides if you switch to another program. Program restricted desktop menus appear as they would be attached to specific programs and virtually become part of them.
To restrict a desktop menu to particular programs, right-click any desktop menu item or its title bar and select "Restrict to specific programs".