Is it possible to save PMs while you're typing them?

[LynnH]

Yesterday, I was typing a PM - had typed about 2 pages of text and had just about finished when I got a message on screen "Somersoft timed out" (or similar words) - this occurred after I'd hit the "Preview Post" button. When I entered the forum again - pftt! no PM! This has happened several times now. Most annoying!!

I went into the Windows directory, and managed to find a temp file for the PM, but no matter what I did, I couldn't do anything with it in order to continue working on it. (I hope this all makes sense - am a technological troglodyte! )

Is it possible to save a PM while you are working on it, so that when the computer glitches - or you do something stupid - you don't have to start from scratch again??? If so, could someone explain it in terms that the technologically-challenged can understand?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers
LynnH

 

[Simon]

If you are typing a long post or PM then I find it easiest to type it up as a word document then just paste it into somersoft before posting or sending.

Hope that helps

 

[Pablo]

For some reason I used to have allot of problems with posts failing when I hit the submit button so I have got into the habit of highlighting the text and copying it via the right mouse buttons menu, if anything goes wrong I then just paste it back in and try again.

 

[Sim]

For some reason I used to have allot of problems with posts failing when I hit the submit button so I have got into the habit of highlighting the text and copying it via the right mouse buttons menu, if anything goes wrong I then just paste it back in and try again.

If you have an unreliable network connection this can happen occasionally. Even just using WiFi at home can be enough - especially if you are pushing the boundaries of connection quality (eg sitting too far away from the router).

Even though my link is now very high quality, I've actually been doing exactly what you describe as a matter of habit for some time now - copy the text of the post to the clipboard just before I submit, just in case.

Ctrl-A to select all, then Ctrl-C to copy to the clipboard.

If I'm ultra paranoid and have written a particularly long post, I'll also paste it into Notepad just in case (remember that if you subsquently copy something else to the clipboard it will erase the text you previously copied there).

I've been in IT long enough - and have done enough PC Help Desk support (my first job out of uni), to be quite paranoid when it comes to avoiding data loss.

 

[LynnH]

Thanks for all that info, Simon, Pablo and Sim!!

Cheers
LynnH