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If you receive the error "pexkey.dll too old" on program launch, a software update or a re-installation over an existing PhraseExpress installation seem to have gone wrong.

Solution:

1. Uninstall PhraseExpress (No worries. Phrases won't be deleted and you can keep your settings).
2. Reboot computer. Don't miss this step.
3. Reinstall PhraseExpress

• Program installation

The Variable Manager introduced in PhraseExpress v14 has been removed in PhraseExpress v15 to provide more functionality.

Info video

When the phrase file is loaded for the first time, PhraseExpress v15 converts your global variables into regular phrases, which are stored in a new phrase folder "Variables".

You can then drag these phrases into any phrase for use as before.

Benefits:

• Previously, any user could modify or even delete the global variables without access rights restrictions. The earlier variables now stored as regular phrases can now be access restricted.
• Variables can now also be restricted to certain programs.
• The variables now stored as text blocks can be used with all other PhraseExpress functions (Search, Find and Replace, etc.)

• Blog posting with more info

The PhraseExpress client stores the settings in the user application data folder "%appdata%\PhraseExpress\" in file "config.xml"

Potential issues if settings are reset to default values or altered:

• PhraseExpress was not properly shut-down after settings change. To make sure, that settings are written to the computer storage, exit the PhraseExpress client after making the setting change or license key registration.
• PhraseExpress could not save or load file onto the hard disk because of access restriction applied to the config file.
• A 3rd party backup solution blocked access to the file at the time of writing or reading the file.
• A 3rd party sync service restored an earlier version of the configuration file (that doesn’t carry the settings change).
• The config file is not available at startup of PhraseExpress, e.g. if your Windows application data folders are not stored locally but on a network drive which may not be not present at the time PhraseExpress is started.
• You have changed your Windows user name or you switched to a Microsoft Account based identification for Windows log-on.

Please monitor the modified date stamp of above configuration files to investigate the potential cause.

Autotext replacements are suppressed if you press a specific hotkey directly after typing an autotext.

For example, the autotext "FBI" wouldn't be expanded to "Federal Bureau of Investigation" if you press the autotext suppression hotkey directly after entering the autotext. This gives you a case-by-case choice to have the autotext being executed as needed.

The (customizable) default hotkey is pressing 2x SHIFT. Unfortunately, it seems to be easily entered by accident.

Solution: Open PhraseExpress settings, switch to section "hotkeys" and select another hotkey or delete the hotkey association if you don't need this feature:

• PhraseExpress settings - Hotkeys

PhraseExpress doesn't launch with the window open by default. It only shows the program window, if you run the program again while it is already running in the background. If PhraseExpress shows up on Windows startup, you seem to have multiple PhraseExpress entries in your startup configuration.

Solution:

Try cleanup the Windows startup section by unchecking and re-checking the autostart option in PhraseExpress settings:

If this doesn't solve the issue, review your autostart entries with the original Microsoft tool "Sysinternal Autoruns" and delete any abaondoned or duplicate PhraseExpress entry. This tools generally gives you great insight what is launched on your computer.

Alternatively, use the Windows File Explorer to manually clean up the StartUp folders:

1. Remove all(!) PhraseExpress entries from both folders "%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\" and "%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\"
2. Open PhraseExpress Preferences " Features and uncheck "Start PhraseExpress automatically with the system" and check it it again (if desired).

If PhraseExpress prompts for a password and if you are 100% sure, that you never applied a password protection, either someone else entered a password or the phrase file may be corrupt.

In most cases, this can happen, if the computer has been reset, switched off or crashed while PhraseExpress was still busy writing the file.

Don't panic! PhraseExpress creates backups and you can easily restore previous versions of your phrase file.

To avoid this situation in the future:

• Make sure, that PhraseExpress can finish writing all files when the program is shut-down.
• Never switch off the computer while it is powering down.

• Restore phrase files on Windows
• Restore phrase files on a Mac
• Configuring phrase file backup

Phrases with WYSIWYG form controls contain the display resolution information (DPI) which may be incompatible for modern high-resolution displays.

Solution: You would need to re-create the WYSIWYG form elements to have them auto-adapt with your actual display resolution.

• WYSIWYG forms

Possible causes:

• Clipboard memory has been deactivated. Solution: Activate the clipboard memory.
• The Clipboard Manager is restricted to specific programs. Solution: Adjust the program restriction settings
• The shortcut key assignment has been removed/deleted/changed. Solution: Assign the desired key combination to the clipboard memory:
• The clipboard is empty. Then it is not displayed. Solution: Fill the clipboard with text.
• Another application is using the key combination for other purposes. Solution: Resolve the conflict.

• Enable Clipboard Manager
• Assign hotkeys
• Clipboard Manager
• Configuring program restrictions

Accented characters are letters that are entered by sequentially pressing multiple keys on your keyboard, such as á, é, í, ó, ú, ü, ñ, ¿, ¡

If setting the OS to a specific language, make sure that the keyboard settings matches the input language. For example, if the language is set to Dutch, then configure the keyboard setting to "United States-International keyboard for Dutch".

If using PhraseExpress along with other applications with keyboard input detection (called "keyboard hooks"), such as AutoHotkey, Intellitype, etc, accented characters cannot be processed correctly because of interference of those programs.

Solution: Do not run multiple such programs simultaneously.

PhraseExpress provides integration with the 3rd party service, OpenAI. It sends your prompts to OpenAI and retrieves the responses for use within PhraseExpress.

Please make sure that your internet connection allows our software to connect to https://api.openai.com/v1
and https://api.openai.com/v1/chat via standard https port 443.

Please check your firewall configuration and the OpenAI web page for more info about their service availability.

We do not operate the OpenAI/ChatGPT service. It is an independent 3rd party provider, and we have no insight about their service availability. Our software just integrates a user interface that passes your input to their service. It's crucial to note that we neither operate nor maintain the OpenAI service. OpenAI's service is exclusively managed by OpenAI.com, independent of us.

Due to OpenAI's immense popularity, there may be times when their servers experience high traffic and become temporarily overloaded. If you encounter any issues, we recommend trying their service later. Also, review your account status and API key in the user control panel on OpenAI.com.

For technical support related to OpenAI, please consult their documentation or contact OpenAI customer service. We will not be able to assist you with OpenAI service issues.

If you suspect an error with OpenAI's integration in PhraseExpress, first verify that there's a green check mark in the OpenAI API key input box within PhraseExpress settings. If this green check mark is missing, please review your OpenAI account status at OpenAI. We cannot assist with OpenAI account matters, as we don't have access to these details. PhraseExpress only interacts with your API key, which serves as an intermediary for authentication (e.g., facilitating billing by OpenAI for the services you use). We don't have knowledge of your specific OpenAI account details.

It seems that automatic billing may be disabled by default in the billing section of the OpenAI account. If your account runs dry, OpenAI stops working without any special error message visible to the customer. So, please review if your invoice are accidentally due/unpaid.

• OpenAI troubleshooting tips

Every time you attempt to launch PhraseExpress again while it is already running, it opens the main program window.

If this happens on system startup, it seems that PhraseExpress is launched multiple times because of redundant multiple items in the startup folder.

Solution: Make sure to have one single PhraseExpress startup item in the Windows startup folder.

To clean up the startup folder, disable the PhraseExpress autostart in the PhraseExpress settings which will delete all items. Then enable it again.

In Windows 11, startup programs can be placed in two main locations:

• Current User Startup Folder: This folder contains startup applications for the currently logged-in user. The path using environment variables is %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. This translates to a full path that typically looks like C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, where [YourUsername] is the name of the current user profile.
• All Users Startup Folder: This folder contains startup applications that will start for all users on the system. The path using environment variables is %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp. This translates to a full path that typically looks like C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp.

• Launch with Windows