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Mysteriously Moving Margins in Word

In Microsoft Word 2008 (and older versions), if you put your cursor in a paragraph and then move a tab or indent marker in the ruler, the change applies to just that paragraph. If your markers are closely spaced, you may have trouble grabbing the right one, and inadvertently work with tabs when you want to work with indents, or vice-versa. The solution is to hover your mouse over the marker until a yellow tooltip confirms which element you're about to drag.

I recently came to appreciate the importance of waiting for those tooltips: a document mysteriously reset its margins several times while I was under deadline pressure, causing a variety of problems. After several hours of puzzlement, I had my "doh!" moment: I had been dragging a margin marker when I thought I was dragging an indent marker.

When it comes to moving markers in the Word ruler, the moral of the story is always to hover, read, and only then drag.

 

 

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Simon 2 Says: Monitor Your Server

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Simon 2 Says: Monitor Your Server -- Dejal Software has released Simon 2, a major update to their server monitoring utility. Simon performs repetitive checks on a remote Internet service and reports back if the test fails and, if so, when the service comes back online. Simon can also watch Web pages for changes. The most important new feature is a Port service that provides the capability to check virtually any server type; that's key for keeping tabs on POP, IMAP, SMTP, AFP, DHCP, and other servers that weren't previous supported. Simon can notify you of problems with a variety of local actions, via email (which can enable text messages to cell phones), by launching an application (which extends Simon's reach even further), by playing a sound, or by speaking pre-defined text. Simon 2 also features a more flexible interface that better lends itself to the creation and maintenance of many tests and multiple notifiers. Simon 2 costs $30 (Basic License: 7 tests), $60 (Standard License: 20 tests), or $200 (Enterprise: unlimited number of tests). It's a 3.4 MB download. [ACE]

<http://www.dejal.com/simon/>

 

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