[Jerry McColgan]

It is REALLY annoying when a topic or post or reply is carefully prepared...

Only to be totally lost just by a click or two of the mouse or by a backspace or two - when all you are doing is trying to correct a typing error.

Most times I simply say to myself "the heck with it" and whatever I was trying to do does not get done whether it is to try to help someone or to post something. I'll bet a lot of others also say "the heck with it."

For better or worse it takes the spontaneity out of saying or wanting to say something. Typing takes an effort. Few things are worth typing twice.

If I really want to say something I often "save" it by copying it to Word in anticipation of MLS losing it. Something needs to be fixed when we assume it will break before we even start to use it. I wonder how much help is never received by someone in need because of the frequency that members lose work they had put into a reply?

It's like the common question of "What did you say?"
And the common reply of "Nothing."

Maybe the answer was unimportant but maybe it was (to someone).

Regards,

Jerry

 

[SteveC]

Jerry

Since we're all pretty much aware of some of the pitfalls that exist, and that Shad is in the process of trying to rectify them.

Wouldn't it make more sense to type the reply into the word processing program first and then cut and paste what you've typed into the MLS editor text area?

It won't eliminate the possibility of loosing what's in the editor, but at least all you'd need to do is re-paste another copy from the word processing program.

 

[Jerry McColgan]

That had occurred to me and I may end up doing it. I did not know if there might be any incompatibilities I was not aware of in using cut and paste from Word.

I had also wondered if there might have been a solution within the current MLS software that I was not aware of.

Thanks,

Jerry

 

[SteveC]

Well 'incompatibility' lets just say wasting your time with all the fancy formatting available in a word processor isn't going to be of much use when you paste it into the MLS editor.

So using MS/Notepad (i.e. simple plain-Jane text editor) gives just as good results, and any formatting you desire needs to be manually included in the form of HTML tags.

While the process may be a bit of an inconvenience, it sure beats the heck out of spending 25 min. or more typing something in and watching it all disappear in a heart beat.

 

[Paul Norton]

The nice thing about Word is the built in spelling and grammar checker.

I compose my long posts, not this one, in Word because I can take my time and edit it before uploading. It's also handy when you are copying information or image addresses off other web sites.

 

[Semper Vaporo]

I had problems some time ago with postings dissappearing on me and I finally decided it was because someone else had posted a message between the time I started my missive and when I actually hit the Submit button. To cure that problem, I type "Ctrl-A" to hightlight all the text in the edit box, then type "Ctrl-C" to copy it to the Clipboard. Then I click the Submit button. If the post works... fine, the Clipboard data is overwritten next time, no harm. If not, I open the Reply window again and just type "Ctrl-V" to paste the Clipboard into the edit window.

Not long after I decided to "always" (Ha! fat chance) do it that way, the problem seemed to go away. I have not had the problem for a couple of months now and I have been getting very lax at doing those keystrokes. (I'll do it to this missive, just because this would be an ideal time for Murphy to teach me a lesson /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif !)

But, if you and others are still having that problem, then I can understand the "loss of interest" that can occur. Hang in there, we need your participation!

 

[Jerry McColgan]

This is a different issue. I am familiar with what you are referring to because that too happened to me a lot.

This issue happens when I click twice with the mouse to move the cursor or backspace twice to delete text.

It just happened to me again as I wrote this (the first time) and I had failed to back it up on Word because this is a short message (which is no less irritating to lose). I lost my first version and as always this 2nd version is less detailed about the problem than the first version was.

Jerry

Note: as I am now editing my message it brought up another issue which is that all paragraph spacing is lost whenever a message is edited. I am sure that Shad and the moderators are aware of it but I had not noticed any messages about it.

Sometimes it helps to note someone else posting about a problem because it is an assurance that the problem is not in MY computer.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Looks like the cunning plan to eliminate massive replies has worked, Baldrick!

Black Adder

 

[Semper Vaporo]

Well, I gotta try this...

Lotsa lines of text, just repeated and repeated to fill up the space and simulate my blathering on and on about nothing of any value and repeat it many times to fill more space.

Hhmmmpf... I filled the edit box with a dozen lines like that above (now deleted) and I tried slowly clicking twice at many places on screen, and clicking twice faster and faster until it began to recognize it as a Double-click and whatever word the mouse cursor was on would be highlighted. Triple clicking highlights the whole paragraph. The fourth cick of a Quadruple click is ignored, but quintuple clicking unhighlights everything and the next click starts it all over.

I also tried backspacing once, twice, thrice, fast and slow, and I even tried clicking at the same time and I cannot reproduce the problem.

I bet my computer is just being on its best behavior since it knows that I am looking for it to screw-up... it is probably just waiting for me to lower my guard and then it will jump up and 'byte' me with the problem. But at present I am at a loss as to what to suggest.


Remember, computers are neither smart nor dumb;
They are just plain MEAN!

 

[Curmudgeon]

Ah, yes, Baldrick, picking certain IP's to have your cunning plan function on was a stroke of genius.
Black Adder

 

[SteveC]

Could have somthing to do with the browser flavor and/or version.

If you want to see everything in the editor's text field disappear, just tap the Escape key.

If you want to retain the formatting (e.g. blank line between paragraphs) then end each paragraph with the HTML line break tag and start the next paragraph on the next line below. This will retain the formatting even when editing a reply.

(Remember the asterisk in the above example tag needs to be removed so it will execute, and yes there is a space character between the r and the / (forward slash).)

 

[tacfoley]

Posted By Jerry McColgan on 07/28/2008 11:42 AM
It is REALLY annoying when a topic or post or reply is carefully prepared...

Only to be totally lost just by a click or two of the mouse or by a backspace or two - when all you are doing is trying to correct a typing error.

Most times I simply say to myself "the heck with it" and whatever I was trying to do does not get done whether it is to try to help someone or to post something. I'll bet a lot of others also say "the heck with it."

For better or worse it takes the spontaneity out of saying or wanting to say something. Typing takes an effort. Few things are worth typing twice.

If I really want to say something I often "save" it by copying it to Word in anticipation of MLS losing it. Something needs to be fixed when we assume it will break before we even start to use it. I wonder how much help is never received by someone in need because of the frequency that members lose work they had put into a reply?

It's like the common question of "What did you say?"
And the common reply of "Nothing."

Maybe the answer was unimportant but maybe it was (to someone).

Regards,

Jerry


Ah, you mean like th

 

[Jerry McColgan]

Posted By tacfoley on 11/12/2008 8:15 AM

Ah, you mean like th


Hi Cousin,

It reminds me of the Cash Register on BBC's "Open All Hours."

Jerry