I am trying to setup electrum 1.01-e (windows flatfly compact build) on Win7 64bit.
Is it possible to generate a private key on brainwallet.org using a pass phrase and then using it in electrum instead of taking the default (12 random words) key?
I tried generating a key on brainwallet that contained letters/numbers/symbols and then chose restore when launching electrum.
I entered the same pass-phrase in the "Seed or mnemonic" field, left the gap limit to the default 5, clicked OK and got the error "I cannot decode this" then the client aborts. When I relaunch it, there is no prompt to create or restore a wallet.
Also is there a way to access the command line or help files from the windows GUI?
Sorry about the newb questions, I'm sure I'm missing something obvious

first:
NEVER use brainwallet.org!!! this site looks like an obvious phishing attempt.
Second: if you want to generate a seed from a passphrase of your choice, well, it is possible, but very dangerous. Therefore, this approach is not encouraged, and the software should not facilitate this method.
if you want to know why, I suggest you read the discussions in the official Electrum thread, I don't want to repeat them here.