Menu freezes after trying to switch from buy/build mode to live mode, can't save

[bids]

So I bought a private property in the town other than my house. I went to that property and built on it for hours in preparation for my sims to move in. After that I went to switch to live mode in order to save it, and my whole interface just froze--I can't click on anything in the blue menu. That means I can't save my progress!

I tried pressing F1 and waiting it out. So far no change. My mouse cursor is stuck on the "loading" symbol, and I can't click on ANYTHING on the menu to get out of it. The odd thing is that my menu is frozen, but I can still use edge scrolling to navigate my whole town. The game itself is fine, its just the blue menu....

My question is, does ANYBODY know how I can possibly trick the game into going back to live mode so that I can save? Is there a button on my keyboard I can press, anything? I spent hours on this house, its huge. This is really disappointing and frustrating. Why EA, why?

[MrsFlynn]

Hi Bids,

The problem you're having sounds somewhat familiar to a problem I ran into awhile ago where the build mode panel disappeared and wasn't able to save my game. I'm not sure how, but I was able to get to the Edit Town mode by pressing the F5 key. Some others have had better luck with pressing the Fn and F5 keys together to get to Edit Town.

Try those keys, and if it doesn't work here's a thread that gives some more ideas to try.

Topic: Build mode panel disappears, can't save game?
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,17399.0.html

Hope this helps, 

MrsFlynn