[Dwight Ennis]

Like many of you, I have spent time composing a long post only to encounter the dreaded Instance of Object Not Set error when I tried to submit.  While I don't know the cause or ultimate solution for this (it's something the software developer needs to address), I have developed a work-around so I don't lose my post.

First, use the "Add Reply" button and not the "Quick Reply" box when composing lengthy posts.  If starting a new thread, use the "Add New Topic" button.  In either case, instead of clicking on the button, RIGHT-CLICK on it and select "Open in new window" from the resulting pop-up menu.  There's a reason for this.


Compose your post as usual.  Once you have it just the way you want it, and all the spell checking, etc. is done, click on the "Source" button in the post editor's menu bar.  Highlight the entire thing and copy it to the clipboard.  You can now click "Submit" or "Preview" and see if it takes.  If it doesn't, don't panic.


Because you right-clicked the button before, the previous window with the "Add Reply" or "Add New Topic" button is still there.  Go back to that window and again RIGHT-CLICK the same button and select "Open in new window" as before.  In the resulting new editor window, immediately click the "Source" button and then paste in your previously composed post's source code, then immediately click "Submit." 
One "gotcha" to mention - once you've copied your Source, don't copy anything else or you'll lose it.  If you really want to play it safe, open Notepad and paste the source into it as a backup.  

Works for me every time.  Until the forum software developer finds and fixes the problem, this is at least a workable temporary solution. 

 

[markoles]

Dwight,

Thanks. I had some difficulty posting a long message the other day, and doing what you described would have helped!

Mark

 

[Gary Armitstead]

Dwight

Thanks for the information. I lost a long one the other day in "Preview". Glad to hear there is a work-around for this.

 

[Steve Stockham]

Ah! Thanks Dwight! We now have a way to deal with being "glitched" by the website! /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/satisfied.gif

 

[Dwight Ennis]

I hope you guys find it useful. 

By the way, an addendum: Even if you start a post without the "right-click : Open in new window" trick, all is not lost so long as you copy the "Source" prior to submitting. Once that's done, even if you submit and it doesn't take, you can always start another copy of the browser, navigate back to the thread in question, start a new reply/thread, and paste your source code into the "Source" window (the right-click trick merely avoids this possibility). Like I said, just don't copy anything else after the source unless you've saved it into Notepad.

Notepad works best for this sort of thing because it's a clean text editor, not a word processor like "Word", so it doesn't add a bunch of garbage to the source code. What you paste in is exactly what you will get out if you have to copy the document's contents back out.

 

[noelw]

Hi Dwight... I made the mistake of hitting the Quote on the top right and made my comment on this sit

  http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/4/postid/18718/view/topic/Default.aspx

The tried to make a few changes and add another line to it .. Then tried to submit being the preview never works haft of the time or just sets there blank..  So Tried to copy and paste it in Word pad and that didn't work to save it. so read more on what you said and paste it to Notepad.  but don't use any smiles until I paste it back on to MLS.replay box. 
Being  the submit didn't work, I dropped the browser and re-open it and back to MLS.com.. Well some of my changes worked.  Went back to edit to finish the post and took about 20 mins. before I got a box said lost connection.  
Shad must be still working on this site.
  I have a lot of problems here now.... I have to keep post small replays or it won't go.  But if I drop the browser  after about 15 min. it will go again?? not sure whats going on..  and for spell check that works fast.  
I can go to any other link like e-bay or any thing I Google or etc. and everything is fast on Comcast here..  My puter just doesn't like Utah I guess....Maybe we send to much bad weather there from Cal.  /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sick.gif
.hahhahaha/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif  Oh Well its a Gateway.. laf.  Noel
 

 

[Semper Vaporo]

You will not lose the smellies smileys and font coding (bold, strike through, etc.) if you click the "Source" icon at the top of the command bar above the text reply area before you copy it to Notepad.  This button changes the way the window displays text you have typed to show the commands that do the smileys, font changes and other embedded commands. It basically turns off the interpreter for the commands so they get shown as text instead of being executed to do things to the text.

It does make the text rather hard to read until you get used to the angle brackets and odd stuff that comprise the commands, but your text is still there and it will show properly when you submit it.

"Wordpad" will attempt to interpret some of the formatting stuff, but may change it so what you copy back may not work the same, so it is not a good editor to use.  Microsoft Word will also interpret the stuff but makes fewer "changes" to the encoding, unfortunately, it ADDs some formatting that can screw things up, too.  Notepad is the "dummy" of the word processor world and doesn't do anything to the encoding... neither trying to interpret it nor changing it.  BUT, you have to actually capture the encoding stuff and the only way to do that is with the Source button.  If you copy the text without switching to the Source mode the copy does not include the commands.


Also, to change the Source display back to normal, just click the Source icon/button again.