This would be funny if it wasn't  true. Microsoft has been flooding the 
US Patent office over the past few years with upwards of 2000 (yes two 
thousand!) new applications per YEAR. This year they are on pace to 
file 3000 new patent applications. This one (removing or adding white 
space to a computer document) is just one of the 3000. They all are 
about as innovative as this one.

Here's the abstract:
A method, a computer system and a computer-readable medium having 
instructions for a processor stored thereon are provided for growing a 
page on a display. Input indicating a first position or designation of 
content on a page of an electronic document and an amount of white 
space to be inserted in the page is received. Responsive to the 
received input, at least some of the content of the page of the 
electronic document is moved to insert white space. The moving starts 
from a point based on the first position. The portion of the content 
being moved is moved a distance based on the amount of white space 
indicated in the received input. The page is grown by an amount based 
on the amount of the white space indicated in the received input. A 
respective size of other pages of the electronic document remains 
unchanged. Also provided are a method, a computer system and a 
computer-readable medium having instructions for a processor stored 
thereon for deleting a portion of a page and reducing a size of the 
page.

Here's the complete application (sorry to use tinyurl but the patent 
office web site loves huge and I mean hugh urls, this one was 
originally 203 chars)

http://tinyurl.com/e4pov

------------------------
Frank Caggiano
frankcag at crystal-objects dot com
http://www.crystal-objects.com

The best education for the best is the best education for all.
					Robert Maynard Hutchins