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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.

 
 

TidBITS Events at Macworld/iWorld 2013

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We’re gearing up for our annual trip to San Francisco for the Macworld/iWorld exhibition and conference from Thursday, 31 January 2013 through Saturday 2 February 2013, and as always, a number of us will be making public presentations. I’ll list them briefly below, but remember, this is one of the major reasons we created the public TidBITS Events calendar (see “Subscribe to the TidBITS Events Calendar,” 15 October 2012), so if you’re going to Macworld/iWorld, be sure to subscribe to it to learn about late-breaking additions. If you want to add alarms to the events, copy them to a local calendar first.

Before I get to the events, I want to note that this will be the first year that the Netter’s Dinner won’t be held. It’s a shame, of course, but now every good thing must come to an end — for more on its passing, see “Netter’s Dinner Declares Success, Shuts Down” (18 January 2013).

Otherwise, here’s the list of where we’ll be:

  • Thursday, January 31st at 2 PM: Jeff Carlson will participate in a photo/video panel discussion on the Macworld Live Stage.

  • Thursday, January 31st at 2 PM: Simultaneously, Joe Kissell will be giving his “Getting Cozy with Siri” session in room 2022. A $100 iFan Pass is necessary.

  • Friday, February 1st at 12 PM: Jeff will defend his 2012 title in the Macworld Pundit Showdown on the Macworld Live Stage. Well worth watching live (or if it appears on video later), since the pundit showdowns are always fun.

  • Friday, February 1st at 2 PM: After grabbing a quick bite to eat, Jeff will move to room 2014 to give his “iPad for Photographers” session, also included in the iFan Pass.

  • Saturday, February 2nd at 2 PM: Both Tonya and I will join Macworld’s Serenity Caldwell on the Macworld Live Stage to participate in a roundtable discussion about ebook and alternative Web publishing.

Of course, Tonya and I, along with Jeff, Joe, and Michael Cohen will be on the show floor all three days, so if you see us, come and say hello!

 

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