RegExPal not appearing

Question

I had a weird problem, and I want to record the solution here so I can find it next time!

Whenever I started RegExPal, the window would open in the “background”, but I couldn’t figure out any way to bring it to the foreground. It appeared to be an empty window, like when I hovered over it. A restart and re-installation of Paratext 8 didn’t help. I found on this forum how to start RegExPal without Paratext (“Paratext.exe -regexpal”), so I tried that, and again the icon appeared in the task bar, but the window did not appear on the screen. But clicking on that icon multiple times showed that the window was clearly located off-screen.

No problem, I thought, I’ll just use Windows key + arrows to bring it back onto the screen. But that didn’t work. Eventually the only thing that worked was SHIFT right-clicking on the RegExPal icon (when it was run separately from Paratext) and selecting Maximize. That brought it back to the main screen, and then I could drag the title bar to get it out of maximized mode. (If I just minimized again, it would again go off-screen.)

So the reason I had this problem is that I have an external monitor in my office, and had put the RegExPal window on that external monitor for work I was doing, but when working at home I didn’t have the external monitor.

I didn’t try on Paratext 9, but maybe it would be a nice feature improvement would be to check for the existence of the external monitor when you open up RegExPal before putting the window out there! Also, if there is some way that it could respond to Windows key + arrows, that would be helpful. (Although when RegExPal is on my main screen it seems to respond to those keys just fine.)

Answer 1

jeffh:

I didn’t try on Paratext 9, but maybe it would be a nice feature improvement would be to check for the existence of the external monitor when you open up RegExPal before putting the window out there!

Could you send in a problem report (Help > Report a problem). Most of our windows/dialogs are smart enough to notice when the screen they were on no longer exists and move to a visible screen. It looks like RegexPal is one we missed.

Comments

Submitted: PTX-18646.

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Sorry, I didn’t see your email, and sent a second problem report. Maybe that will give it higher priority… J

Thanks,

jeffh

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Here’s a workaround that works for me:

1. Hover your mouse over the Paratext icon in the task bar.
2. When the regexpal “icon” displays, hover your mouse over that.
3. Right click, select “Move” and notice your cursor disappears. Without moving your mouse, left click, and then drag RegExPal to the left until it appears on your monitor.

Answer 2

Thank you for reporting this. I think this is not specifically a PT problem; I’ve had trouble with other Windows programs appearing off-screen when they were previously on an external monitor. Can’t test it now, but Shift + Right-click may be the solution!

Paulus+Kieviet

Answer 3

sewhite,
This helped, but nothing happened when I clicked on “Move”. I tried clicking on “Maximize” and that made the RegExPal window appear. I have doubts about whether I once had RExPal on a side monitor, but it’s possible. It’s just been a long time since I had it open at all.

Answer 4

Another way to get a hidden window back on screen is to right click on the Taskbar (in a empty space) and select "Cascade windows”.

This should cascade all of the open windows and move your missing windows back onto the screen.

Though it sometimes does not work.

Answer 5

It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but the steps I recorded that most reliably worked for me, to get the RegExPal window back, is the following:

• Make the RegExPal window (the one off screen) active by using Alt+Tab to select it
• Shift+right-click on the icon in the task bar (if stacked with Paratext, on the window thumbnail)
• Choose “Move” from the context menu
• Use the arrow keys to move the window
• I believe once you tap an arrow key, moving the mouse also moves the window as well, and will tend to pop it back onto the main screen