Ok, I give, what IS that striped thing?

[Robert Sievers]

It's been a while since I have actually sat down with the new releases of
AbiWord to do some QA, but now that I have, I have to know something.

What on earth is that yellow/gray striped area on the status bar?  What is
it there for, what does it do, why do we need it, who put it there and why?  

Robert Sievers
Open Source Evangelist