I used to have a maddening problem with the screen changing while I was composing a long reply in this thread or that–the view would revert to the previous screen and what I was typing at the moment would be erased.
Following a suggestion from an attendant in a computer room at a local college (dealing with e-mail copy, not the SDMB) I now follow this procedure for composing a long reply:
Log onto SDMB or any other place you want to post to a thread.
Click mouse in reply box to get flashing “toothpick” prompt.
Minimize screen using “minus sign” button in upper right, along browser title bar.
Pop a floppy into the computer.
Open it to MS Word, adding dummy copy if needed. Save it, using any file name you like.
Key in copy you want to post, into this file.
Save file again.
Select All and Copy. (CTRL+A, then CTRL+C.) This will highlight or “block” text to be posted.
Minimize the file (button in upper right).
Restore page with Reply screen, by clicking on “button” along bottom of screen.
Click in Reply box again to get “toothpick” flashing prompt.
Paste (CTRL+V).
Preview or Post as you ordinarily would.
Is that better than composing it Notepad/Simpletext/TextEdit, saving the text (if you’re really paranoid), and pasting into the SDMB reply box?
When you say “open it it MS Word,” what do you mean? Just open MS Word to a blank document?
Any why the floppy?
Sorry, I think these sound snippy, but I honestly don’t mean them to be. I don’t think I get what you’re saying.
I think the floppy is because he’s using a common shared computer, not personal computer. So anything he saves must be on his own disk, not the hard drive.
Any text editor will do, and it is not required to actually save the file. Type in text in the text editor, then copy and paste to the window.
I’ll often work in the edit window, but when worried about it losing it on a scrambled submit, I’ll hit copy before submit. Then if there’s an error, I just return to the edit window, paste, and resubmit.
This is a personal computer, not part of a network. I’m not familiar with the use of a notepad. I just prefer, when writing out a longer post, to key the text onto a floppy so I don’t lose it if I accidentally push the wrong key on the keyboard–easy with my big fingers. I sometimes wind up with the original screen for that thread, that is, with the reply box empty–and that is maddening. (OK, maybe I should investigate the use of the Notepad feature.)
I use Allaire Homesite or Notepad. Don’t see any reason for the floppy - why not save it to the hard drive? 
If I’m doing a long post, I also do it the Notepad way … before clicking on Post Reply. Then, when I’m ready to submit I refresh the thread in case one / a hundred 
people have replied in the interval, making my post irrelevant. When I’m satisfied my post will not be out-of-date I copy and paste into the Reply box - and hit “Submit” very quickly. 
Julie
That’s the way I do it too, Julie, to an extent. Before I click on the Submit button, I can scroll down to the replies and make any necessary emendations to my post before submitting it. 
dougie_monty, to use Notepad in Windows, click Start|Programs|Accessories, and it should be there. I’ve moved mine to my toolbar, so it’s just one click away.
Using Notepad is easier than Word in that Notepad doesn’t have to “launch” - it’s a bare-bones editor, nothing more. You can either cut and paste from it or save as a .txt file for later use.
And for the spelling-challenged - choose the most lightweight text-editing program you have on your hard disk that includes a spellcheck. Then use that program to compose your messages and do a spell check before you copy and paste it to the reply box.
More than once, I’ve used Outlook as my post editor. It’s always running, and has spell-check.
Then, a quick ctrl-A and ctrl-C (select all and copy), followed by ctrl-V (paste) into the SDMB reply box sends it on the way.
Or ctrl-click the reply text box if you’re using Safari. 
Yes, I typically use Outlook for a text editor since it’s running anyway.
Back in college, we had personal computers that were in a shared common area, available for anyone to use but not ours individually. You were not allowed to save things to the hard drive, but had to use floppies. That is the background for my previous reply. I have no idea why you would use a floppy to save on your own personal computer at home.
Well, for one thing, Irishman, my hard drive is only 1 gigagyte and it is nearly full. Besides, when I took the MS Word courses in college I was accustomed to saving files on floppies, and I continue to do it that way. So there. 
It doesn’t take me any longer to open Word than anything else. And it’s next to impossible to close it without being asked if you want to save your document. I can’t understand why anybody would use Notebook or Wordpad since they don’t have spell checkers.
And if you want to spell check your posts, ieSpell will spell check text entry boxes and it is accessible from the Tools menu of your browser. I wouldn’t be without it now that I’ve installed it.
A SDMB notepad file is scarcely more than 1K, and even a lot of text in a Word doc would only be about 30-40K. Saving a temporary file of this kind is not going to affect your disk space in any way you’d notice. IMO you’re making things a tad more complex and slow for yourself.
Exapno Mapcase you must have a kick-ass system - on my PC at home, Word takes about 30 seconds to launch; Notepad takes less than one second.
Or…
before you click “submit” or “preview,” just highlight your text and paste it into window’s clipboard (right-click, copy // or, // drag down top menu Edit Copy).
Then, if the preview or submit gets lost in server hell, you can get back to a reply window and paste in the text from the clipboard (right-click, paste // or, // drag down tope menu Edit Paste).
Peace.
Paranoia 101
2 seconds for Notepad. 3 seconds each for a blank document to appear in Wordpad and Word.
I have a three-year-old 600MZ Pentium. Nothing special for sure.
I misread the thread title to be:
Long posts: suggestion about composting them
Gotta say, works for me.
Asked and answered, I think.
Thanks, everybody.
your humble TubaDiva
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