How About an automatic "SAVE" Feature on Emails or Messages?

[impcon]

Just wondering who else out there would really appreciate an automatic "save" feature on emails or messages that are being typed where at a preset interval of every few seconds, what ever is being typed into a message or a post would be automatically saved as a form of back up in case of a power outage or as what has happened to me here tonight. I was in the midst of composing an important email to someone when I had to leave for a few hours. I just came home to find that my computer lost the web page - perhaps some reboot because of an update (???? ) but the browser window that contained my email and everything that I had typed is now gone. I have had this happen not just with emails or messages but also with posts if the MCM site is accidentally closed before the writings are uploaded. This is incredibly frustrating!!!.

I have been on other much smaller and less frequented sites where the typed text is saved like a sort of draft until it is properly submitted to the appropriate thread. To the powers that be, this feature would likely be welcomed and if other websites that are smaller than this one have it, do you not think that it may be something that would be appreciated and made use of? If I seem a bit ticked off, it is because I am because what I had typed before I was called away took me a lot more than a couple of minutes to type out - only to lose it. I know that it would be best to type a post or email out in Word pad but the technology is out there to rectify this problem. Administrators - PLEASE give this some serious consideration. And anyone else who agrees, please chime in here and make this need more apparent.. I appreciate the site and I appreciate the fact that it did not just materialize out of thin air and it took time and money to construct it and it takes time and money to keep it going. But please... this is a hear felt plea.. In the infamous words of Captain Jean Luc Picard, "Make it so" but with a sincere "please!!!" added on to the phrase...

[highway]

Funny, but I notice that at least in the full editor version if you hit more reply options instead of just the reply box at the bottom of the page, it DOES say that is is saving. Now how true that is, I don't know, nor do I know how you retrieve the autosaved reply.

[highway]

Now I am trying this post by using the full editor by clicking the "more reply option" and it has at the bottom left corner of the editor box "last auto saved at 3:21:44 AM (wow it's that late! ). Now the question is, how do you retrieve the auto saved text if you do goof up and hit a wrong button, as I have done many times before? it does appear as if the save rate is every 2 minutes because the auto save time now is 3;23:44 AM and just changed to 3:25:44 AM.

Also, I have just figured out how the auto save works. You must use the full editor, but instead of where the last auto save time is or was, if you goof and accidentally hit some wrong button mid rant, you go back into the full editor and in that lower left corner you now see "View Auto Saved Content (Today, 03:25 AM) and last auto saved 3:32:47 AM, as I'm writing this, of course the times will not be the same.

Hope it helps, and you might lose two minutes you may have to remember what you were saying, but at least not a whole twenty minute post, which is about how long this one has taken with experimenting!

[impcon]

Thank you for the help - I really appreciate your taking the time to post this information. but maybe the "auto save" feature could be expanded to include just regular posts? This is only a heartfelt suggestion. I do apprciate having this site regardless of whether I seem to be just complaining.

[Casey]

I don't see anywhere on the forum where you can e-mail another member directly, so maybe I'm missing it. You can send a Personal Message (PM), but as far as I know member's e-mail addresses are not publicly displayed as a default setting. How are you sending e-mails to members through the forum?

[Casey]

Thank you for the help - I really appreciate your taking the time to post this information. but maybe the "auto save" feature could be expanded to include just regular posts?

I think Dave Ambrose can best answer that question as he knows the ins and outs of the forum's software better than anyone else here.

I have to ask, though- if the Full Editor option gives you exactly what you want, and it already exists here on the forum, why not use that when you're composing something important and you want to have the security of the AutoSave feature backing it up? The simple reply box, which I've often seen on other forums as a "quick reply" box is just that, meant for quick replies, not long compositions which take a few minutes to compose.

[highway]

I don't see anywhere on the forum where you can e-mail another member directly, so maybe I'm missing it. You can send a Personal Message (PM), but as far as I know member's e-mail addresses are not publicly displayed as a default setting. How are you sending e-mails to members through the forum?

Unless it is where you can put contact information, like in your profile that takes you to your ebay page.

Nice stuff, btw!

[Casey]

Unless it is where you can put contact information, like in your profile that takes you to your ebay page.

True, it could have been manually entered in multiple areas. I was wondering if I had missed something and there was an "e-mail this member" or similar feature in each member's profile area. Mostly I was trying to separate the e-mail from PM comment, trying to determine if the e-mail message related problem Gary was having was an issue with his web browser or e-mail provider since I don't think direct e-mail is part of our profiles here.

And thanks.

[Tom Geiger]

Per emails... most email programs have a "Save Draft" button. In fact even my crummy AOL email will save your email in Draft if it's interrupted.

Now today I was typing a thoughtful post on another board when the whole page suddenly went blank. No more post, and I wasn't typing it again!

One of the things you can do (either with an email or a message board posting form) is to write your post in Word, then copy and paste it into the email once you have word smithed it and are ready to send. I have also copied and pasted to Word when I got the feeling I could lose an in progress post.