Title: Comments lost too easily Last modified: August 22, 2016 --- # Comments lost too easily * [Wyrd Smythe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wyrd-smythe/) * (@wyrd-smythe) * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/comments-lost-too-easily/) * One of the staff suggested I post a request here due to this WP.com Forums thread: [http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/arg-lost-another-long-comment-i-was-writing](http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/arg-lost-another-long-comment-i-was-writing) * When I go to the Dashboard’s Comments section (wp-admin/edit-comments.php) and double-click on the text of any comment (to include some bit of text in the reply comment), that puts me into the same edit-comment mode as clicking the Quick Edit link. * What’s worse, if I am writing a reply comment at that time, that comment is silently vanished — I lose whatever I was writing. I’ve lost a number of replies that way. Very frustrating! * Also, if I accidentally bump the [Escape] key while editing, again, the comment I’m writing silently vanishes (no prompt or alert), which is quite unexpected! This can also happen if I bump the [Back] button. * I’d usually expect that any form with entry data would prevent me from leaving the page without an alert or prompt regarding losing my work. * Any chance of changing that functionality? Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/comments-lost-too-easily/#post-5805331) * Double-click is a specific action of intent with regards to websites. * I don’t know how to ask this, so my apologize if this comes out rude. Are you using a accessibility friendly keyboard/input system? * Thread Starter [Wyrd Smythe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wyrd-smythe/) * (@wyrd-smythe) * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/comments-lost-too-easily/#post-5805343) * No, not that I’m aware of. Everything is standard. * _“Double-click is a specific action of intent with regards to websites.”_ I’m sorry, but I don’t know that that means. * Are you saying that, if you do what I describe above — double-clicking on some text — that it does not have the same result as clicking the **Quick Edit** link of that comment? * To re-emphasize, the real problem here is that there’s no alert or prompt to preserve a comment one is currently entering. I feel that violates the “principle of least surprise” for interface design (_and_ results in lost effort — which is both surprising and frustrating). * Moderator [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/otto42/) * (@otto42) * WordPress.org Admin * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/comments-lost-too-easily/#post-5805406) * What she means is that a double-click is generally taken to be “not an accident”. You might single-click something by mistake, but a double-click is a deliberate action. When you take a deliberate action, then moving the focus and undoing whatever you were previously doing is accepted as the norm. * If I’m in an email program, and I double-click on an email in a list, then hiding the list and showing me the email is normal. I don’t expect it to ask me if I want to stop looking at the list, I’ve just told it that I’m now focusing attention over somewhere else and don’t care about whatever I was previously looking at anymore. * If you’re entering a comment, then it’s expected that you’ll finish it before you double-click elsewhere. A single-click could be accidental, a double-click typically cannot. * You have a point about the escape key though. That could be a bit smarter. * Thread Starter [Wyrd Smythe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wyrd-smythe/) * (@wyrd-smythe) * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/comments-lost-too-easily/#post-5805407) * Okay, I see what you’re saying. The “with regard to websites” threw me. In the sense you mean, a double-click is a specific action of intent with regard to pretty much everything. * Double-clicking plain text in a webpage does have a well-known expectation: It highlights the word that was double-clicked. It often puts the section mode into word- (rather than character-) selection. (It works exactly that way in this edit box I’m typing into.) That is exactly why I’ve double-clicked text: I wanted to highlight text for a copy-n-paste. * However, this should be a fairly benign behavior. In particular it should not _silently_ discard an open form with input in it. I suspect if the double-click was not bound to the **Quick Edit** action, there would be no issue. * In your example of a list and one email on that list, you are not editing the list, merely viewing it. The change in focus doesn’t destroy the list or silently discard your input. * But the binding of double-click to _Quick Edit_ is just an observation. I think the binding is a design mistake. You should allow the natural “highlight word” action that most expect (and which would not require the major change of focus). * The much more severe problem is not prompting the user before discarding input. The real issue here is not prompting the user about _losing their input_. * The double-click is just one way that happens. As I’ve indicated, it can happen other ways, so my request is primarily to prevent that lossage. Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) The topic ‘Comments lost too easily’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [comments section](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/comments-section/) * In: [Requests and Feedback](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/requests-and-feedback/) * 4 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Wyrd Smythe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wyrd-smythe/) * Last activity: [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/comments-lost-too-easily/#post-5805407) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics