Contact Us

  • The documentation provides many step-by-step tutorials on how to get the most out of PhraseExpress.
  • Do have a question about "expired maintenance"?
  • Your license key and invoice for online purchases can be found on the shop service page.
  • "99%" of the inquiries we receive daily are already addressed in the shop/licensing FAQ or technical FAQ.
  • The free iOS App and desktop freeware version are provided without charge and do not come with personal support.
  • For installation support and custom programming consultation, please visit our consulting service page.

How may we assist you?

First Aid

Your purchase includes the right to use the software, as well as updates and upgrades, which we publish within the maintenance period.

A special feature of our offer is that maintenance also includes all new major versions with new functions.

The iOS App supports a selection of macro functions of the desktop edition for Windows and Mac.

Macro functions are created in the PhraseExpress desktop client. You can’t create macros on the mobile device due to its limited userr interface

Our online shop is handled by the 3rd party eCommerce provider "MyCommerce/DigitalRiver" (formerly "ShareIt") who receives payment and sends the license key(s) for your online purchases. This company is your contract partner (we, Bartels Media, are the manufacturer but not the vendor).

You have received your license with the delivery email coming from "ShareIt/MyCommerce/DigitalRiver". Please browse your email inbox for any of these sender names.

If you cannot retrieve the delivery mail from your email inbox:
  1. Visit the MyCommerce Shopper Support webpage.
  2. Log into your account. If you don't know your login credentials you can request them on that page (We do not have them as we are not the vendor).
  3. Retrieve your purchase information.

Licensing depends on the installation variation:

  • Stand-alone installation: If using PhraseExpress without a SQL Server, one license can be used by one person on up to three computers on which you use the same user name. On Windows, the "user name" is the "Windows user name" (this is not the Microsoft account name). On a Mac, the "user name" is the "Apple account name" (this is not the log in name). Each person requires a separate license. The actual user name that PhraseExpress uses for licensing is shown in the "About PhraseExpress" window.
  • Portable mode: If running PhraseExpress from a USB stick, the license key is bound to the USB stick, which you can use on any number of computers.
  • Client-/Server: If using PhraseExpress with a SQL Server, you need a separate license for each user connection to the server. The user can be identified by his or her user name or by the combination of user name and workgroup, or by the combination of user name, workgroup and computer name.

Licenses for Windows and macOS are separate purchases.

No, the software is no subscription but a single purchase with a one-time payment. There is not recurring payment.

You can use a license key for either Windows or Mac but not at the same time.

The license can be moved from Windows to Mac (or vice versa) at any time.

Yes, you can deregister your license key from one installation for use with another user name as often as you want.

You can also move the license from a Windows installation to a Mac installation (and vice versa).

Maintenance is much more than just updates.

It includes any update, upgrade and also major new version with new features we release within the maintenance term.

Your benefits

  • Licenses do not expire and are valid life-time.
  • Licenses are no subscription and there is no recurring payment.
  • If a new version should be released just a few months after your purchase, you don't need to purchase an upgrade. Instead such upgrades are free for you and included in your maintenance at no extra cost.
  • If you renew maintenance, you get additional discount.

In regular use, our software does not need an internet connection.

An internet connection is used in following cases only:

  • The license key registration requires an internet connection for just a few seconds. This is a one-time procedure. We offer an offline licensing option for large volume installations.
  • Optional: Our software can occasionally check for updates and download updated versions.
  • Optional: Our software PhraseExpress can use the external language translation service DeepL which requires an internet connection.

If you don't make use of any such feature, you can safely block our software in your firewall.

Under no circumstance does our software send any confidential and/or sensitive information to us or anywhere else. Our company resides in Germany, in a country with one of the strictest data privacy laws in the world.

Returning customers get renewal discount. You can also upgrade to a higher product edition:

Bitmaps and text formatting

Formatted phrases are a complex topic as multiple different factors are involved:

  • The source program from which you create a phrase from.
  • In case of a HTML source, the way, bitmaps are referenced (embedded, linked per URL or linked to a local file).
  • The settings of the target program that receives the formatted phrase. Example Microsoft Word (video tutorial):

  • The phrase format (Plain Text, RTF, Word) selected in PhraseExpress to store the phrase.
  • Varying font sets installed on the source and the destination computer.
  • Phrase formatting output settings as defined in the PhraseExpress settings.

Microsoft recently decided for unknown reasons to mess with the default settings. You may need to re-configure your Office product after the corresponding Office software update.

Microsoft has recently changed the new default font to "Aptos" for Office. To use this font in other applications, such as PhraseExpress, Microsoft wants you to jump through this hoop.

Saving a formatted phrase

If you highlight a phrase in the source program and create a new phrase in PhraseExpress, the following happens:

  1. PhraseExpress triggers a "copy to clipboard" action with the highlighted text.
  2. The source program fills the clipboard with the text contents, eventually in multiple formatting variations (HTML, RTF, plain text and eventually custom formats, such as native Microsoft Word formatting).
  3. PhraseExpress analyses the clipboard and prefers to use RTF, if provided by the source program, as phrases are internally stored as RTF in PhraseExpress. If only HTML is available, PhraseExpress converts the HTML into RTF which may change text formatting appearance.

Avoid conversions from HTML to RTF by using a source applications that fill the clipboard with RTF.

Examples:
  • Microsoft Word fills the clipboard with native Word formatting, HTML, RTF and plain text.
  • Microsoft Outlook sends RTF or HTML based on the email settings.
  • Microsoft Wordpad provides RTF and plain text.
  • Microsoft Notepad provides plain text only.
  • Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari, etc.) and the E-Mail client Thunderbird provides HTML and plain text.

Please contact the vendor of the source application for information about supported formats.

You may also consider to create the phrase directly with the built-in PhraseExpress editor.

PhraseExpress embeds bitmaps into formatted phrases, regardless if they are linked to a local file or URL in any HTML formatted phrase.

Inserting formatted phrases

PhraseExpress sends a formatted phrase to the clipboard in multiple formats: RTF, plain text and HTML (PhraseExpress generates the HTML dynamically bassed on the RTF contents).

The target app selects its preferred formatting variation from the clipboard. If the target application prefers HTML over RTF, the phrase appearance may change due to the RTF to HTML conversion.

PhraseExpress has no influence in the target application's formatting choice/preference. Sometimes, target programs allow to configure the preferred clipboard paste formatting choice.

In PhraseExpress, you can configure the format to use to output phrases (Settings » Expert Options » Text insertion » Phrase output format).

if choosing "Automatic", PhraseExpress outputs in plain text, RTF and HTML in all target application but Microsoft Office. In this case, no HTML is output as Microsoft Office, unfortunately, prefers HTML over RTF for unknown reasons.

Review the target program clipboard paste settings, if available. For example, Microsoft Word has detailed clipboard paste conversion settings.

Please note, that phrases with bitmaps cannot be synchronized between Windows and Mac due to different storage technologies of either operating system.

Yes, licenses are valid life-time for all software versions which are released during your maintenance term.

Make sure to keep a local backup of your software installation file as we do not maintain a repository of older software versions.

Only maintenance (free updates, upgrades and new versions) expire after the end of the selected maintenance term, but you can continue to use your existing installation without expiration.