Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong. As the old saying* goes, "screws fall out all the time - the world’s an imperfect place". To help us fix any loose screws, the best thing to do is to grab a screenshot of the issue and send it to feedback@thoughtexchange.com along with a brief description of what you were doing when the bad thing happened.
Pictured above: a rare error seen in the wild.
Not sure how? We can help!
1. Expand the error message.
Most error messages will have a show details button at the bottom of the message. Give this a tap to expand the error, which will show more detailed output including the time the error occurred.
2. Take a screenshot of the error.
On Windows:
- Click the title bar of the window with the error (this could be Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox)
- Press Alt + Print Screen (this may be printed as PrtScrn or something similar on some keyboards)
- The screenshot will be copied to your computer’s clipboard
- In most email clients, such as Gmail or Outlook, you can paste the screenshot directly into an outgoing email the way you would with any other text or picture
- Otherwise, you can open an application such as Microsoft Paint, paste the image (Ctrl + V), and save this as a new image file, which can then be attached to your email
On Mac:
- Press Shift-Command-4. The pointer will then change to a crosshair.
- Press the space bar. The pointer will then change to a camera.
- Move the camera over the window to highlight it.
- Click your mouse or trackpad button.
- The screenshot will be saved as an image file on your desktop.
- This image can then be attached to your email.
On Android:
- Press and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time for a few seconds.
- Your device will save the screenshot as an image.
- This image can then be attached to your email.
On iOS:
- Press and hold the Home and Power buttons until the screen flashes.
- Your device will save the screenshot as an image.
- This image can then be attached to your email.
3. Provide a quick description of what you were in the middle of doing when you were interrupted. This will help us both understand and try to reproduce the problem so we can fix it.
- Did you click on a button?
- Did you switch to another app and then back again?
- Were you moving from one step to another in the exchange?
- Do you get this same error by doing the same thing again?
- If you try a different browser, do you get the same error?
4. Email your screenshot and description to feedback@thoughtexchange.com. We appreciate it!
*this may or may not actually be an old saying, although the '80s and The Breakfast Club were a long time ago!