After posting the following & receiving an enlightening reply I thought it would be worthwhile trying to collate all the tips people have picked up
about how to avoid pitfalls on ATS & generally how to make it a smooth experience.
My little tip:
Originally posted by pause4thought
reply to post by mblahnikluver
I have more than one time lost what I was typing because I accidentally hit the side bar and was then sent to ATS news videos. I know I
am not the only one this has happened to. I have lost a thread I was starting and various posts...and after that I didnt feel like re-typing it. Why
dont you have it where it doesnt delete it when you get re-directed...
I'm not sure ATS can do anything about the problem of losing a post when you accidentally navigate away from it. (It is infuriating - I remember it
well.) There is a solution, though. Use a Mac. You just navigate back & hey, presto, it's still there!
Perhaps expensive just to solve the issue, but worth considering when it comes to replacing a curent setup.
The cheapest way is to get a second-hand machine, or go for a Mac mini. Alternatively, if you've got kids or work in education, go to the
Apple store in your country & check out the discounts available via the 'Education Store', linked from the left
of the homepage.
You'll never regret it. 
The tip I got in reply:
Originally posted by ArMaP
reply to post by pause4thought
There's a much cheaper (it's free) way, use Opera. 
I just have to navigate back (either by using the back button, the keyboard or mouse gestures, my favourite way) and everything is as it was when I
left that page.
I'm sure there must be endless advice lurking out there. I'm looking forward to this...
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For those who sometimes struggle to read what's posted because of small text:
Hold "Ctr" and scroll your mouse-wheel to zoom in and out of the page.
The above method can also eliminate the side-bars all together. 
Great for larger screen capture of certain areas of a page ("print screen" on keyboard and then paste into paint/photoshop etc).
Zoooooom!
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You can also block the side section or should i say the underlying image and link, but this will also result in several other gif/links to disappear
but it this also makes the page loading blistering fast. Or you can simply use a text browser without all the xmas lights blazing away.
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This has been posted before but bears repeating in this handy dandy thread...
For those who are irritated at the animated avatars and feel they distract you while you are trying to read a post...press escape.
The animations will freeze...
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OR, for the upteamth time (as others and myself have stated repeatedly) if you know you are typing a lengthy post that you do not want to risk losing
just type it out on Word, notepad, Open Office, or any other non ATS connected WORD PROCESSOR! It is that simple, then all you
do is copy and paste into the ATS post box. I promise you (barring some unforeseen catastrophe with both your processor and ATS) you will NEVER lose
your work again. Honestly it is quite foolish to type long responses on the ATS text box anyways for the very reason that something may happen and
there is no way of saving your work. There is no need to download any software, bye any new gadgets, or be super stressed out about losing your
work.
So if you follow these PAINFULY simple tips you should never have to worry about losing your precious work again:
1. Type any long response or thread on an EXTERNAL word processor.
2. Save what you just wrote.
3. Copy and paste into the ATS text box.
4. Hit reply and that is it. You are done! Simple, see?
By the way: I too find the side bar issue VERY annoying but oh well, it is an annoyance nothing more, plus it can be avoided a lot.
[edit on 11/6/2009 by jkrog08]
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