Stop chat window text message partway through and send keystrokes to game instead?

[Taron]

So say I'm halfway through typing a /tell to someone and get attacked or something unexpected. I need access to my keys for dealing with the situation, but if I press "1" to use a hotbar macro for example, it will of course just type '1' into my message instead, and do nothing gameplay-wise.

I know I can press Enter but that will send half a tell, which is not ideal at all. At best, I can press Shift+Down then Enter to clear my message and get my keys back, but that's multiple keystrokes AND my half-message is gone for ever (shift+up doesn't bring back up un-sent messages).

I'd rather have something I can press/click that stops typing my message and allows me to send keys to the game, but then when I'm done dealing with the situation I can resume typing the rest of my message where I left off.

The thing is, I swear I've reached this state accidentally sometimes, where I have a partial message typed but keys aren't going to the message any more, but I can press Enter or click in the message window to resume. I just don't know how I reached that state - maybe just from zoning? Or if I just imagined it...

Anyway, what is the recommended/best way to get keyboard controls back while in the middle of typing a message, without sending a half-message, and ideally being able to resume typing it once the situation is resolved, if such a thing exists?