A couple of times lately I have written replies using "Quick reply" and then had to return to the board to check on a point to which I was responding. Problem is that if the point I am checking is not on the last page of the thread, when I go back a page I lose everything I have written. Can anything be done to sort this feature out? Or am I doing something wrong?

The only previous account I've had of people losing stuff was due to session time-outs: after 15 minutes of inactivity the site decides you've disappeared, changes your status on the "who's online" page and expects you to start a fresh session not suddenly send a reply (something avoided if you simply check for new posts every 5-10 minutes as that refreshes your session).

This flicking backwards and forwards issue is rather more straightforward: every time you change pages you get a completely new page from a web-server. This is important as otherwise your browser would "cache" old pages and you'd not see any changes to pages as people added to threads. The downside, of course (and as you note), is that anything not "submitted" to the server is not included when you go back to a page.

The way around this is to simply open a fresh window when you want to browse at the same time as writing a reply: I tend to just right click on "new posts", spot the thread and have it open alongside the "quick reply" box... but there are other ways to the same result.

Hope that helps.

R.

Thanks, Rachael. I understand the advice, even if the middle paragraph is a bit over my head.

I'm confused, OF. When you click the Quick Reply icon of the post you are replying to you go to the bottom of the same page that contains the post you are replying to. To re-read that post you simply scroll up.

If you click the Quote button the whole post you are replying to is quoted so you can reference that as you create your reply. After you finish typing you can delete the quote if not needed.

Below the text editor when replying with quotes you can scroll down and see the last few posts in the thread.

If you wish to see the entire thread in a new window, while the text editor is open, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the link within this sentence: Click here to review the whole thread. The whole thread loads in a new window. No need to use the Back button in either case. This link will only be visible if the thread is spread over multiple pages.

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All clear. I usually use quick reply specifically to avoid having quotations appearing unnecessarily, but I take your point about being able to delete before posting. It's getting to the whole thread that is causing me the problem.

Yes. I see that as well.

Can't see that link at all. Would potentially be useful! What have I disabled?

Sorry, Mike: forget that last point. Tested your recommendation on a short thread where the last few were all displayed under the text editor. On a longer thread your post makes complete sense. Thanks for the hints.

Sorry, forgot to say that the link only becomes visible when the thread is spread over multiple pages. I've added that point to my previous post.

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