What do you call the feature that lets you make the message box as big as you need?

As big as you need: Resize

As big as possible: Maximize

By the way, Fluther has what I’m referring to. Is it a new feature in Fluther? I just noticed the diagonal lines at the right bottom corner of this box. But when I read your Resize and Maximize I thought of browsers (Firefox Chrome…) and documents like Word etc., I was referring to webforms, email pages or comment boxes. There it is not a given that the message box allows for taking screenshot of the whole email/comment in an article that you’re sending, meaning the top part of the email is not going to be visible to the writer as it gets too big. So, the screen shot is going to be in more than one part. There’s the copy and pasting into an email account, but there is no record of the image of the webform.

In the back of my mind, I’m thinking of readers of my OP who may be new to computers.so I add words that whoever I’m responding to obviously doesn’t need. (edited)

By the way, Fluther has what I’m referring to.

Interesting! I never noticed before. And I have not noticed that on many (any?) other sites.

@Zaku I meant to use @Zaku in my responses.—
@Call_Me_Jay It is very interesting. The first time I saw this feature was tons of years ago. So, it’s interesting how it’s hasn’t become standard, for one, and why it’s not obvious to all.

It’s not a new feature in Fluther. It’s just one that is easy to overlook, and that many of us may not think to use.

I think the purpose you have in mind, of wanting to take a graphical screenshot of a form entry that shows the entire message in one shot, is not a particularly common one, but I appreciate that it could be useful in some cases. (If you are on some site which doesn’t have a resize control, and you need screenshots, you could take multiple screenshots, each showing a different scroll position on the message.)

The feature can be useful here on Fluther when composing, too. I think the usual reason designers include such a control, is thinking about making it easier to compose a long message.

On web pages, this sort of control is also very commonly called a “resize” control.

@Zaku Re. “wanting to take a graphical screenshot of a form entry that shows the entire message in one shot,....” is it only the message or the entire page? I want the entire page.
I find lots of sites don’t include the copy of the message in their acknowledgement of reciept Most of them it’s just “Thank you for your message.”

So, If I say ”...resize feature…” the IT people would know what it’s about? Non IT people would say “resize what?”
Using it prove something in a court room, one example where it might be needed.

Now I know what you’re talking about. Your question was misleading and without much context. Were you really looking for the name of the feature? It sounds like you want to know how to copy and save a message in a response form when the message has overflowed the onscreen text box.

I do want to be able to do this fairly often. It might be a more common need than you’d think.

What I do is use the Print Screen function (PrtScr) and paste it into a Word document. For a cut-off message box, I either have to do it more than once to get the whole thing or I copy the contents of the box and paste it separately into my Word file.

It’s a nuisance, I agree. I wonder if they have a reason for not making it easy. Such as using it to prove something in a courtroom.

(There’d also be the problem of proving not just that you wrote it but that you sent it.)

@Zaku I meant ”...resize feature…” the IT people would know what it’s about. ((no question mark.) I’m guessing like in so many fields the experts in the field know what a term is about, (even if it’s not specific enough) but to the lay person not so much. Edited)

Well IT people might also ask what you want to re-size.if you just say “resize feature”.

If you tell an IT person “a control to resize the text box” they should get it.

If I just want the text that I wrote, I select the text (click in the text field, then type Ctrl+A), and copy (Ctrl+C) and paste it into a text editor (I use Notepad++ – make a new file, click on the text window, type Ctrl+V) and save it as a file on my computer.

But of course that doesn’t give you much evidence, if you need that.

@Zaku Exactly. The whole thing is about evidence. Wouldn’t lawyers for eg., need it? It doesn’t have to be for things not as serious as for court.

By the way I was searching “graphical evidence vs….” I don’t know what goes in the blank. (I remember searching that a while ago, but I don’t think I got the answer.)

For lawyers, it would depend on what they need it for. If you keep detailed records of all your transactions in text files, that might be more than enough for some purposes.

A screenshot isn’t particularly difficult to fake (and doesn’t mean you pressed Submit on that text, nor at any particular date), but might help. A photo might also help, if there’s some way to put a time on it that can’t easily be faked, maybe sending it to some 3rd party service that tracks times files get uploaded, but still, it’s just going to be an email of a screen looking like that at that time. So it depends on what the issue is. If I were worried about such a thing, I’d ask a lawyer what they’d suggest.

Graphical evidence versus text evidence?

It’s in your post permalink above, “graphical screenshot of a form entry…”

Ok, I see my error. I was actually searching for “graphical screenshot vs ...”

Yes, re. “A screenshot isn’t particularly difficult to fake (and doesn’t mean you pressed Submit on that text, nor at any particular date),..” That is true.
Which companies do include the message in their “Thank you, for your message”?