Save as Draft and Full Preview are tandem features that play well together in Roller 3.1.

A Web browser which supports tabbed browsing is all a Roller blogger really needs to take full advantage of them.

Setup and use are as easy as one, two.

First,

use a browser which supports tabbed browsing.

We're still on the "easy setting" here, because almost every browser of recent vintage supports tabbed browing.

Just set your browser preferences to open each new URL in a new tab. My own Firefox browser settings for this purpose are pictured at right.

As a result, when you use the Full Preview button for the first time, your preview will open in a new tab.

Your edit window will remain unchanged in its own tab.

Roller will not lose or change your work when you switch to and view the preview under its tab.

Below is a snapshot of my tabs in Firefox on OS X Tiger while I was composing this entry.

Second, Save as Draft frequently.

"Save frequently" is a recommendation which dates to the earliest days of computing, and still applies. Frequent saves mean an interrupting phone call or unexpected visitor to the office cannot distract me enough to cause a loss of work.

This system, at least for me, wonderfully simplifies blog-writing.

Farewell external editor. My Roller install creates Technorati tags for me out of the Roller tags. Simple tag creation and easy review were the primary conveniences an external editor gave me.

It's all so simple. I make revisions under the Edit Entry tab.

Then, I Save as Draft, hit Full Preview and view the results under the Full Preview tab, which features the name of my blog.

Thereafter it is a matter of edit and preview as required.

No lost work.

No lost time.

Let me know how it works for you.