Have you ever been writing on a topic, only to accidently, or absent mindedly click the back button or click a link to google, forgetting to open a new window. I remember once it seemed like 3 times on the same post... something went wrong... that caused me to load another website.

And when I click back..... it's all gone!!

NOOOOO!!!!

Or maybe you click post and some unexpected error came up and when you go back a screen.... It's all gone.

NOOOO!!!!

However I've had this same thing happen to me on yahoo or hotmail composing a message except...

When I click back.... still there.

YESSS!!!!

So not sure how hard it would be to get that type of functionality on this board... but, man, it sure would be nice. The technology is out there, I'd love to see it here.

Just a suggestion....

droop224,

Yep, I know exactly what you mean. This situation is very old and so is the solution. On the mainframe, there's an editor called ISPF that saves a copy of the text every time the user hits ENTER. Contrast that with vi on the midrange (Unix), where you have to do a couple of keystrokes to save, and it's nothing like CTRL-S. Having experienced the solution first and then the problem, I naturally think that most things in Unix suck compared to the mainframe. But that's just me I'm not the one making the money decisions.

But really, if one is very concerned about saving the masterpiece, compose in a word processor set up to save every so often automatically. That's Tools > Options > Save > Save AutoRecover Info in MS Word, at least for now in Word 2003. They'll probably change that simple little thing just because.

Then do CTRL-A to select all text, CTRL-C to copy, go to the Web page of interest and do CTRL-V to paste. It might even work. Might have to right-click to get the menu paste selection. Or it might not work at all. Depends on if the Web site recognizes the clipboard (Windows memory buffer for text, pics & etc.). does.

Also, I've been using SlimBrowser for a couple years now, and it handles multiple browser windows very well. If I go to a different site, a new browser window opens up so I don't lose what I was working with. SlimBrowser is freeware and lives nicely alongside IE. That is, IE is not aware of SB.

Anyway, the annoying behavior of some Web sites is a problem. Others work very well. What can I say, except this is what happens when many cooks are in the kitchen, and there are lots of kitchens. Things were somewhat easier when IBM ruled the world, but those things were also very expensive. Yeah, and then there are the Unix weenies who think computing started in 1970. Eh well, patience is a virtue.

I normally do incremental backups to an external USB drive, but when working on a really big project, I use Web backup too. That way if the house burns down and takes the computer with it, the work is still out there on the Web. A lot of Web backup sites are offering free space, up to a limit for most, so just backup the folders that contain real work to the Web.

My sincere sympathies though. I hate losing something I've sweated over for more than a few minutes.

droop I wonder if changing browsers would help... I am using Firefox at work and Safari at home. I am able to leave the text I am typing, by changing pages, and use BACK to return to typing. Just a thought.