diff --git a/ui/src/components/OperationPanel.jsx b/ui/src/components/OperationPanel.jsx
index bd09fff..45e770a 100644
--- a/ui/src/components/OperationPanel.jsx
+++ b/ui/src/components/OperationPanel.jsx
@@ -834,17 +834,17 @@ function ScaleLedger({ currentTotals, scaleInputs, setScaleInputs, scalePlug, se
   const plugState = (() => {
     if (!(valueCol && unitsCol)) return null
     const u = filled('units'), p = filled('price'), v = filled('value')
-    if (u && p)  return { value: null,      live: false, why: 'Both qty and price are named, so the dollars follow from them.' }
-    if (u && v)  return { value: null,      live: false, why: `Both ${valueCol} and ${unitsCol} are named, so price falls out of the two — this is the deliberate price change.` }
-    if (u)       return { value: null,      live: false, why: `Price holds; ${valueCol} follows ${unitsCol} in proportion. Name the dollars as well to move price instead.`, unpin: 'units' }
-    if (p)       return { value: 'volume',  live: false, why: `Price is pinned, so ${unitsCol} absorbs the change.`, unpin: 'price' }
-    if (!v)      return { value: null,      live: false, why: 'Applies to a dollar figure entered on its own — nothing else names price or qty.' }
+    if (u && p)  return { value: null,      live: false, why: `${unitsCol} and price named — ${valueCol} follows` }
+    if (u && v)  return { value: null,      live: false, why: `${valueCol} and ${unitsCol} named — price follows` }
+    if (u)       return { value: null,      live: false, why: `price holds — ${valueCol} follows ${unitsCol}`, unpin: 'units' }
+    if (p)       return { value: 'volume',  live: false, why: `price pinned — ${unitsCol} absorbs it`, unpin: 'price' }
+    if (!v)      return { value: null,      live: false, why: `for a ${valueCol} figure on its own` }
     return {
       value: scalePlug,
       live:  true,
       why:   scalePlug === 'price'
-        ? `${unitsCol} holds; price moves to reach the number.`
-        : `Price holds; ${unitsCol} scales with the dollars.`,
+        ? `${unitsCol} holds — price moves`
+        : `price holds — ${unitsCol} moves`,
     }
   })()
 
@@ -1046,7 +1046,7 @@ function ScaleLedger({ currentTotals, scaleInputs, setScaleInputs, scalePlug, se
         <div className="flex flex-col gap-2 mt-3 pt-3 border-t border-gray-100">
 
           {plugState && (
-            <Field label="Absorbed by" hint={plugState.why}>
+            <Field label="absorbs" hint={plugState.why}>
               <Segmented
                 value={plugState.value}
                 onChange={setScalePlug}
@@ -1066,10 +1066,10 @@ function ScaleLedger({ currentTotals, scaleInputs, setScaleInputs, scalePlug, se
           )}
 
           {hasExcl && (
-            <Field label="Target on"
+            <Field label="target"
               hint={onTotal
-                ? `${exclName} can't change, so the adjustable rows absorb the difference. The pivot will show your target.`
-                : `${exclName} ignored. The pivot will show your target plus ${fmtNum(excl.value)}.`}>
+                ? `${exclName} can't move — the forecast absorbs it`
+                : `${exclName} left out — the pivot will show your number plus ${fmtNum(excl.value)}`}>
               {/* "Adjustable" and "Selected total" are the writer's words for
                   it -- which rows the SQL may touch. What a rep is choosing is
                   whether the number they type is the forecast alone or the
@@ -1087,9 +1087,8 @@ function ScaleLedger({ currentTotals, scaleInputs, setScaleInputs, scalePlug, se
           )}
 
           {perSlice && (
-            <Field label="Per slice"
-              hint="The figures above are combined totals, so each slice's own change will differ.">
-              <span className="text-gray-500">Applied to each slice separately</span>
+            <Field label="per slice">
+              <span className="text-gray-500">figures above are combined totals</span>
             </Field>
           )}
         </div>
@@ -1233,6 +1232,9 @@ function MovingTotal({ currentTotals, verb, factor, includeExcluded }) {
 }
 
 // ── Apply mode ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+// The detail lives on each option's tooltip. It used to be a sentence printed
+// under the control, and a sentence under a control is read once and skipped
+// forever after -- while costing the top strip its height on every render.
 function ApplyModeChooser({ op, applyMode, setApplyMode, count }) {
   const options = op === 'scale'
     ? [
@@ -1243,14 +1245,7 @@ function ApplyModeChooser({ op, applyMode, setApplyMode, count }) {
         ['prorate', 'Together', `One operation over all ${count} slices — a single log entry.`],
         ['each',    'Each',     `One operation per slice — ${count} log entries, undoable separately.`],
       ]
-  const active = options.find(([v]) => v === applyMode)
-  return (
-    <div className="flex flex-col gap-1.5">
-      <Segmented value={applyMode} onChange={setApplyMode}
-        options={options.map(([v, l, t]) => [v, l, t])} />
-      {active && <p className="text-gray-600 leading-snug max-w-xs">{active[2]}</p>}
-    </div>
-  )
+  return <Segmented value={applyMode} onChange={setApplyMode} options={options} />
 }
 
 function RequestPreview({ payload }) {
@@ -1351,9 +1346,7 @@ export default function OperationPanel({
                          which is the point: a period with no baseline borrows its
                          shape from prior year or plan. */}
                      <Field label="rows from"
-                            hint={cloneFrom
-                              ? 'Only rows from that segment, out of everything selected.'
-                              : undefined}>
+                            hint={cloneFrom ? 'only that segment, out of the selection' : undefined}>
                        <select value={cloneFrom} onChange={e => setCloneFrom(e.target.value)}
                                className={`${TEXT} w-48`}>
                          <option value="">the whole selection</option>
@@ -1369,7 +1362,7 @@ export default function OperationPanel({
 
                      <Field label="shift dates"
                             hint={shifting
-                              ? 'Every date column moves; season and month are re-derived from the calendar. So select the period you are copying from, not the one you are filling.'
+                              ? 'every date moves — select the period you copy FROM'
                               : undefined}>
                        <input value={cloneOffset} list="pf-clone-offsets"
                               onChange={e => setCloneOffset(e.target.value)}
@@ -1444,35 +1437,37 @@ export default function OperationPanel({
           The operation used to be a row of tabs buried in the middle column
           with no heading over it, so the panel never said what it was about
           to do until you read the button. */}
-      <div className="flex items-center gap-3 flex-wrap px-3 py-2 border-b border-gray-200 bg-gray-50/60">
-        <div className="inline-flex rounded border border-gray-200 divide-x divide-gray-200 overflow-hidden">
-          {['scale', 'recode', 'clone'].map(op => (
-            <Button key={op} onClick={() => setActiveOp(op)} active={activeOp === op}>
-              <span className="capitalize">{op}</span>
-            </Button>
-          ))}
+      <div className="flex flex-col gap-2 px-3 py-2 border-b border-gray-200 bg-gray-50/60">
+        <div className="flex items-start gap-4 flex-wrap">
+          <Field label="change">
+            <div className="inline-flex rounded border border-gray-200 divide-x divide-gray-200 overflow-hidden">
+              {['scale', 'recode', 'clone'].map(op => (
+                <Button key={op} onClick={() => setActiveOp(op)} active={activeOp === op}>
+                  <span className="capitalize">{op}</span>
+                </Button>
+              ))}
+            </div>
+          </Field>
+
+          {hasSlice && (
+            <div className="ml-auto flex items-center gap-3 pt-0.5">
+              <SliceSummary slices={slices} viewScope={viewScope} distinctSlices={distinctSlices}
+                            currentTotals={currentTotals} open={peek} onToggle={() => setPeek(o => !o)} />
+              {opBusy && <span className="text-gray-500">writing rows…</span>}
+              <Submit onClick={() => submitOp(activeOp)} busy={!!opBusy}>
+                {opBusy ? POSTING : POST}
+              </Submit>
+            </div>
+          )}
         </div>
 
+        {/* Under the operation it qualifies, on the same label column as every
+            other button row -- it used to sit loose in the middle of the strip,
+            where it read as a peer of the operation rather than a setting on it. */}
         {hasSlice && multi && (
-          <ApplyModeChooser op={activeOp} applyMode={applyMode} setApplyMode={setApplyMode} count={slices.length} />
-        )}
-
-        {hasSlice && (
-          <SliceSummary slices={slices} viewScope={viewScope} distinctSlices={distinctSlices}
-                        currentTotals={currentTotals} open={peek} onToggle={() => setPeek(o => !o)} />
-        )}
-
-        {hasSlice && (
-          <div className="ml-auto flex items-center gap-3">
-            {opBusy && (
-              <span className="text-gray-500 leading-snug">
-                Writing rows — the pivot updates when it finishes.
-              </span>
-            )}
-            <Submit onClick={() => submitOp(activeOp)} busy={!!opBusy}>
-              {opBusy ? POSTING : POST}
-            </Submit>
-          </div>
+          <Field label="apply">
+            <ApplyModeChooser op={activeOp} applyMode={applyMode} setApplyMode={setApplyMode} count={slices.length} />
+          </Field>
         )}
       </div>