Tech Question - Hitting Backspace Key

I have done this over, and over and over. I type a long post, accidentally hit the backspace key before I'm done and I lose it all. Is there a fix or do I really need to train my mind to type in Notepad or a word doc. and paste?

Before you hit the backspace key, have you previewed the post?

And are we talking about the backspace key on your keyboard, or the browser "back" button?

It's the backspace key on my keyboard. I am so clumsy. And it's before I have previewed the post.

Backspace should only back you up one space, especially if you haven't previewed your message. But maybe this will solve this problem for others who have reported a similar problem (neither they nor we had a clue as to what they were hitting.)

If you hit your backspace key after you have clicked on the preview button, but before you re-anchor your cursor, it begins to act like a browser back button. If the post seems to have disappeared, and you're suddenly on a different page of the site, look up on your browser bar and see if there's a forward arrow of some sort. click it and see if it returns you to where you were.

I did try hitting the forward button but my post was gone. I can't tell you how many times I have said, "Oh, WHY did I do that?"

That is strange, the forward button has saved me many, many times!!

knolan, what browser are you running?

Internet Explorer

I should also say that this is a laptop with a teeny keyboard.

Hmmm. I.E. behaves just like Firefox for me. I can't get the backspace to "act up" until I hit preview.

ok, I'm gonna try something.

Now I don't know what's going on. I hit backspace and it's backspacing. But I swear that I accidentally hit backspace and lost everything, several times, several different occassions. Maybe I'm typing so fast that I'm not seeing what I hit.

If the cursor is blinking inside the message compose area (where I'm typing right now) and I then hit the backspace, then it simply deletes the previous character that I had just typed.

However, if I click with my mouse outside of that compose area, I can no longer type into the box. Moreover, if I hit the back space, my browser interprets that as a keyboard shortcut that means "Hit the back arrow".

Using a laptop, it's easy to accidentally click on an area of the page outside where you were typing, and then as soon as you hit the backspace, away you go.

That's the answer! I need to slooooooow down. Thanks for looking into it.

Something else... if your laptop has a static pad for a mouse (where you drag your finger over a square area) when it is probably configured so that if you tap inside the square, that is interpreted as a click.

On my laptop, I found (to my frustration) that if any part of my hand touched the pad while I was typing, it was seen as a click and then chaos ensued. I fixed that by going into the preferences and disabled the "feature".

Now if I need to click, I have to actual press the mouse buttons and tapping in the static box area does nothing.

I've done that one. Where do you change that, Dave?

I'll bet that's what I'm doing. Accidentally hitting the touch pad.

Okay - in Control Panel - Mouse Properties.

Got it! I've disabled the touch pad now. Thank ya'll sooo much.

Happy to be of service!

I'll never buy another teeny laptop again. ;>}