Ok here goes my explanation

Hello! I appreciate the reply.

To answer you're first question, Kristen, I don't use the spacebar to expand, as that would interfere with the account-specific glossaries in MedRite. I used to use the semicolon for word expansion and the bracket for phrase expansion, but nearly everything I actually wanted was showing up in the phrase expansion section and the bracket is more awkward for me to use, so I eliminated words altogether and changed the phrase expansion to semicolon.

Where I type in the expansion shortcut I'm used to with the semicolon but don't get the expansion I'm expecting, just the shortcut itself. It's as if Instant Text is seeing the expansion as the full word when it isn't. I've even thought maybe I foolishly saved it that way, but when I search for it it can't find it. I don't get that one, and it didn't used to do that.

I haven't tried what you suggested as of yet because I wanted to answer your questions first, which would maybe send you in a different direction. Plus, I don't want to mess anything up further. ;)

~Nicole