In GNU Emacs 24.0.50.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.20.1) of 2011-02-23 on escher Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10800000 configured using `configure '--without-toolkit-scroll-bars' 'CFLAGS=-g -O2 -fno-optimize-sibling-calls'' 1. emacs -Q 2. Start editing some buffer. 3. Bring up a doc string in a *Help* buffer with content that contains buttons to other doc strings, e.g. `C-h f completing-read'. 4. Return to the buffer in step 2 and type `M-x insert-buffer RET *Help*'. Note that the buttons in the inserted text are active. 5. Click on one of the buttons in the inserted text that links to another doc string, e.g. `try-completion'. => The previous content of the buffer you were editing is replaced by the doc string of the just clicked button (e.g. that of `try-completion'). This buffer is read-only, but if you make it writable and type `C-x _' to restore the previous content, you get the message "No undo information in this buffer". So whatever unsaved data was in the buffer prior to clicking the button is unrecoverable. I reported this problem to emacs-devel in May 2008 (see http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel/97367/) and there were a few ideas about how to deal with it, but none were pursued. I just got bit by it again -- more fool me, perhaps, but it gives me the opportunity to put it in the bug tracker. And I offer a fix to the immediate problem in the following patch, which prevents insert-buffer from inserting active help buttons. This extends to insert-buffer the default behavior of yanking the content of *Help*, since the help button text properties are in yank-excluded-properties by default.