Review: PhraseExpress 9 adds application-specific macro features - smallhealf1997

At a Glance

Practiced's Rating

Pros

A bouffant time-saver
Configurable
Coating-specific menus

Cons

Some interface oddities
Tray access is inconvenient

Our Verdict

Business users should use PhraseExpress vigorously during the trial to take in if it's worth 50 dollars to them, piece non-business user will get a lot of utility from the disembarrass version.

PhraseExpress, now in its ordinal version, is a powerful macro and text expansion tool that automates entering commonly used phrases, in addition to various other useful functions. By victimisation PhraseExpress, you can join commonly typed pieces of school tex, so much as "You know that 'news' story is from The Onion, right?" to short keywords, such as "ONIN", and PhraseExpress will mechanically produce the full phrase arsenic shortly equally it detects the keyword. With the release of PhraseExpress 9, we pay off an miscellany of newly features, such as support for Windows 8 and cloud drives, that reflect the modern-twenty-four hour period computing environment and user expectations. PhraseExpress cost $50 for business use after a 30-Clarence Shepard Day Jr. liberated tribulation; it's free for personal use.

You can organize phrases into folders, grouping commonly-used concepts together, such As addresses, business greetings, dearie quotes, and boilerplate sections of text edition. The big function enclosed in PhraseExpress offers A level of interactivity, where a specific time value bottom live filled in by the user when the phrasal idiom is executed. A common use is to enter a precise name into a generic message.

Additionally to the keyword activation system, PhraseExpress also allows you to portion phrases to hotkeys.Particularly expedient is assignment a hotkey to a folder of phrases, rather than a single phrase; the whole list appears as a popup, and you can navigate information technology with the keyboard, so you never need to go grab the mouse.

PhraseExpress 9 includes Windows 8 support. More authoritative, information technology now has cloud drive (Dropbox, SkyDrive, etc.) support, allowing users to use the same phrase files across all of their computers. Vendor Bartels Media has enhanced the network support, and now you commode set phrases to be reachable just to certain users.

PhraseExpress can even help out with composition form letters regarding PhraseExpress.

Another enhancement is application-specific popup menus. PhraseExpress has ever allowed you to assign an entire folder of phrases to a hotkey, and to limit some phrases to specific applications, and now these features are combined: Popup menus show only those phrases which are relevant to the active application. This makes it easier to let in many phrases tied to a singular keystroke, only to constrain them to a reasonable number for a given task.

Even better, version 9 filters the popups past applications programme. If you trigger a folder while Word has the focus, only those items intended for use in Word will be shown in the popup. Switch to another application, and only that application's items appear.

Another sport—non new to this version, just one I've just begun using—is merged Web searching. If you select text so hit a hotkey combo, that schoolbook is inserted in the look for engine of yourr choice. It's a limited, but helpful, time saver as compared to superior, copy, out-of-doors browser, open search engine, paste.

PhraseExpress has some limited issues. The first is more Oregon less mandated by the nature of the programme: You have to spend some time scene awake phrases, and memory to use popups operating theatre keys to actuate them. It's non a time-saver if you take to break to look awake what your trigger phrasal idiom is. Second, I have found occasional port issues or glitches, which birth been generally calculative to replicate reliably, and which don't appear often enough to make up a solemn impediment. Third, the default is for PhraseExpress to work in all contexts, which fundament be difficult if you're not expecting it. This is something the user sack command, by setting phrases to only work in specific applications.

PhraseExpress is free for non-commercial use, only commercial enjoyment later on 30 days requires the purchase of a license. PhraseExpress tracks how it is organism used, and heuristics limit if it's being used for commercial purpose.

Users of older versions of PhraseExpress might wonderment if upgrading is worth information technology. The application-specific popup feature is nice, just the John R. Major focus of PhraseExpress 9 is on networking funding, whether in a corporate environment or for users World Health Organization have multiple hardware platforms and want to mechanically sync their phrase lists. The vast majority of features are retained with little change from the prior release. Those WHO are not current users of any version of PhraseExpress are powerfully bucked up to check IT out.

Line: The Download release along the Product Information page volition download the software to your system.