If this has happened to you,
- you are probably using Internet Exploder Explorer and
- you just discovered one of its interesting bugs features
What to do about it? Well, it turns out that it isn't only IE that does this. Firefox and Safari do almost the same thing, but with an important difference, they keep the text you had entered into the form/textbox on the page you just left. At least that is how they behave on my system (Win XP). Additionally, Firefox allows you to change or disable this behavior.
- type "about:config" into the address bar
- read the warning and agree to be careful
- find the preference for "browser.backspace_action", right click on it and choose "Modify" and change the value
- 0: Pressing [Backspace] will go back a page in the session history and [Shift]+[Backspace] will go forward
- 1: Pressing [Backspace] will scroll up a page in the current document and [Shift]+[Backspace] will scroll down
- Any other integer number: Any other integer value will simply unmap the backspace key. I use 2
If you still feel like sticking with Internet Explorer, and you find yourself looking at a heartbreakingly empty text box, try clicking on the "Forward" button at the top of the page or [Shift]+[Backspace]. You may get a warning that the web page has expired, but click the refresh button (or press [F5]) and then "Resend" on the pop up message, and if you are lucky you might find your message is restored.
Whew! I hope that helps.