DPCC,
First, if you can ask your question in just one forum, it will get a better response; and we will all be on the same page. It probably would have been best to post it only in the Problems forum and it is a problem.
Paul, you have given some good advice, but I don't think that really answers the question. Sure, if the network were improved, then the problem would happen less, but it still will be a problem.
The simplest answer to your question is no. The only way to effectively "save" your work is to forward it to yourself. This would be a rather cumbersome way to do things. On the other hand, if you find that you have written a very extensive note, it may make sense to forward that note to yourself. Just be careful when you open it again from your inbox, that you choose no when it asks you if you want to remove it from your inbox or you will be in the same boat. I do the same things with email. How many times have you been in the middle of a long email only to have your computer freeze and lose the entire thing? Outlook doesn't use Autorecovery the way Word does (more later). So, if I have written a rather extensive email, I will save it to draft and then reopen it. Outlook has an autosave and not an autorecovery. So, it will save your work up until that moment and you can't go back.
When you are writing a note, you are composing the note on YOUR computer in RAM. By nature, nothing in RAM is generally saved when your computer closes. So, until you either save your note or forward it, it is not in the database on the hard drive of your server.
But, you don't have to lose your note. If you lose connectivity to the server, you can continue to type all you want, because you have not asked the program to use the database. It is open and you are typing. As soon as you click on something that requires information to be read or written to the database including forwarding the chart, signing it or changing tabs, you will receive an error which states you have lost connectivity. "Do you wish to try to reconnect. Yes or No." By all means choose either nothing (best bet) or yes. Do not choose No or it is bye bye note. Sure, as stated above, you can reconstruct it, but you better hope the text file you are reconstructing from is yours and not your partner's. If you do nothing or click on Yes (you will hear the "ding" sound), you will not crash or lose your note. As soon as connectivity is back, click on Yes, and you should be back in business.
Word uses something called Autorecovery. Autorecovery is the process where Word saves an autorecovery file every ten minutes by default (it can be changed). If your machine is turned off or freezes, the next time you open Word, it will look for an autorecovery file and offer to let you use it, save to it or rename it. Note that it is autorecover and not autosave. Autosave would not allow you to go back to an earlier point in time. So, if you have been typing for thirty minutes and three autorecovery files have been made, when you close Word, it asks you if you wish to save. If you say no, then you revert back to your original stopping point and you lose your autorecovery files. But, if you have written something earth shattering, you should manually click on the Save icon (the little diskette).
Hope this helps.
