diff --git a/src/ui.cpp b/src/ui.cpp
index 8b479a8..46cb210 100644
--- a/src/ui.cpp
+++ b/src/ui.cpp
@@ -4187,7 +4187,7 @@ gboolean tick(gpointer user) {
     next_channels = now_c + G_TIME_SPAN_SECOND;
     app->last_channels_meas = now_c;
     // The cache's own question, on the same cadence as the channel dump: a directory read per second,
-    // and the button's availability re-decided only when the answer changed.
+    // and the dock block's and the events page's availability re-decided only when the answer changed.
     if (app->event_store != nullptr) {
       const bool cached = !app->event_store->list().empty();
       if (cached != app->events_cached) {
@@ -5708,8 +5708,7 @@ void report_events_availability(App& a, const char* what) {
 }
 
 
-/// Walks the whole event-cache loop the way a user does: trigger mode on (the real toggle, which is
-/// what reveals the pane), a latch recorded automatically, the cache listed, the newest event
+/// Walks the whole event-cache loop the way a user does: trigger mode on (the real toggle), a latch recorded automatically, the cache listed, the newest event
 /// replayed through the loader `--open` uses, and *Live* taken back. What it reports is what each
 /// step must be able to do -- a cache nothing can replay is a directory of files, and a replay with
 /// no way back is a one-way door.
diff --git a/src/ui_app.hpp b/src/ui_app.hpp
index c419778..9a94b0d 100644
--- a/src/ui_app.hpp
+++ b/src/ui_app.hpp
@@ -1945,6 +1945,12 @@ GdkTexture* scale_texture(GdkTexture* source, int width, int height);
 EventThumbCache* event_thumb_cache(App& app);
 GdkTexture* event_preview_texture(App& app, const std::string& path);
 void refresh_events_pane(App& app);
+/// Opens the `events` page. **Every route that opens that page must use this** and never `slideover_open()`
+/// directly: the page's list is rebuilt only while the page is open (see `record_event()`), and the
+/// slide-over has no on-open hook, so the list is refreshed here, once, before the page shows. The refresh
+/// is skipped when the page is already open -- it is current then, and a rebuild would drop the
+/// Compare/Accumulate selection and the scroll position. Returns what `slideover_open()` returns.
+bool open_events_page(App& app);
 /// Re-marks which row is the event currently on screen, **without rebuilding the list**.
 ///
 /// The mark is the only thing about a row that a replay changes -- the picture and the numbers
diff --git a/src/ui_dock.cpp b/src/ui_dock.cpp
index 4812eae..b68ab6b 100644
--- a/src/ui_dock.cpp
+++ b/src/ui_dock.cpp
@@ -249,13 +249,10 @@ const char* dock_event_marker(const App& app, const EventRecord& r) {
   return " ";
 }
 
-/// Opens the `events` page. The page's list is rebuilt only while the page is open (see `record_event()`),
-/// so it is refreshed here, once, before the page shows: the slide-over has no on-open hook, and the list
-/// is small. The button is not a child of either list, so the rebuild cannot free the widget it runs from.
+/// Opens the `events` page through `open_events_page()` (which refreshes the list only if it is not
+/// already open). The button is not a child of either list, so the rebuild cannot free the widget it runs from.
 void on_manage_events(GtkButton*, gpointer user) {
-  App& app = *static_cast<App*>(user);
-  refresh_events_pane(app);
-  slideover_open(app, "events");
+  open_events_page(*static_cast<App*>(user));
 }
 
 /// One click on a row replays it, as the page list's activation does: `replay_event()` and then the in-place
diff --git a/src/ui_events.cpp b/src/ui_events.cpp
index f719ca9..6703e41 100644
--- a/src/ui_events.cpp
+++ b/src/ui_events.cpp
@@ -622,7 +622,7 @@ EventThumbCache* event_thumb_cache(App& app) {
   // Created on first use and owned by the list. Nothing used to create it, and a missing cache is
   // not a slow path here but a *blank* one: `event_preview_texture()` answers from the cache or not
   // at all, so every row came up without a picture -- which is what the previews were reported for.
-  // Owned by the list because nothing else has the pane's lifetime: textures of a list that no
+  // Owned by the list because nothing else has the events page's lifetime: textures of a list that no
   // longer exists are so much held memory.
   cache = new EventThumbCache();
   g_object_set_data_full(G_OBJECT(app.events_list), "udpscope-event-thumbs", cache,
@@ -707,7 +707,7 @@ GdkTexture* event_preview_texture(App& app, const std::string& path) {
 ///
 /// Through GTK's own tooltip rather than a popover of ours, for lifetime: a tooltip is shown, placed,
 /// dismissed and destroyed by GTK, and it takes no pointer grab -- a popover per row would be a
-/// parented widget to unparent on every rebuild of the pane, and a grab to lose (see the GTK
+/// parented widget to unparent on every rebuild of the page, and a grab to lose (see the GTK
 /// invariants on both). The texture is decoded in the handler and dropped with the tooltip's picture,
 /// so a hover costs nothing once it is over and the row cache keeps holding only the small one.
 gboolean on_preview_query_tooltip(GtkWidget*, int, int, gboolean, GtkTooltip* tooltip, gpointer user) {
@@ -842,7 +842,7 @@ static void rebuild_events_pane_list(App& app, std::vector<EventRecord>& records
     // to grow and the text keeps the rest of the width.
     gtk_widget_set_size_request(frame, kEventThumbW, kEventThumbH);
     // `halign` START, not the default FILL: a filling widget is given whatever the row has left over,
-    // which made the picture as wide as the pane and cropped by the height it was pinned to.
+    // which made the picture as wide as the page and cropped by the height it was pinned to.
     gtk_widget_set_halign(frame, GTK_ALIGN_START);
     gtk_widget_set_valign(frame, GTK_ALIGN_CENTER);
     gtk_widget_add_css_class(frame, "udpscope-event-thumb");
@@ -870,7 +870,7 @@ static void rebuild_events_pane_list(App& app, std::vector<EventRecord>& records
       ++unreadable;
     }
     gtk_box_append(GTK_BOX(line), frame);
-    // The newest event is the first row: what the probe measures, and nothing the pane treats
+    // The newest event is the first row: what the probe measures, and nothing the page treats
     // specially.
     if (app.events_thumb == nullptr) app.events_thumb = shot;
 
@@ -926,10 +926,11 @@ static void rebuild_events_pane_list(App& app, std::vector<EventRecord>& records
   }
 }
 
-/// Both views of the cache, rebuilt from the same list: the pane's rows (with their pictures) and the
-/// dock's compact ones. The dock follows even when the pane's list does not exist.
+/// Both views of the cache, rebuilt from the same list: the events page's rows (with their pictures) and the
+/// dock block's compact ones. The dock follows even when the page's list does not exist. To *open* the page
+/// use `open_events_page()`, which calls this only when the page is not already open.
 void refresh_events_pane(App& app) {
-  // One read of the cache directory for both views (none without a store, which the pane's rebuild
+  // One read of the cache directory for both views (none without a store, which the page's rebuild
   // and the dock's both treat as nothing to list).
   std::vector<EventRecord> records;
   if (app.event_store != nullptr) records = app.event_store->list();
@@ -937,9 +938,14 @@ void refresh_events_pane(App& app) {
   if (app.event_store != nullptr) dock_rebuild_events(app, records);
 }
 
+bool open_events_page(App& app) {
+  if (slideover_page(app) != "events") refresh_events_pane(app);
+  return slideover_open(app, "events");
+}
+
 /// Clicking a row replays it: the same loader `--open` uses, on the event's file. The acquisition is
 /// stopped by `replay_event()` -- a live producer would overwrite the samples within a frame -- so the
-/// pane's own *Live* button is the way back.
+/// page's own *Live* button is the way back.
 void on_event_row_activated(GtkListBox*, GtkListBoxRow* row, gpointer user) {
   App& app = *static_cast<App*>(user);
   if (row == nullptr) return;
@@ -976,7 +982,7 @@ GtkWidget* build_events_pane(App& app) {
     return app.events_box != nullptr ? app.events_box : gtk_box_new(GTK_ORIENTATION_VERTICAL, 0);
   }
 
-  // What the pane *does*, which a file cannot hold: the two group actions read the selection, the list
+  // What the page *does*, which a file cannot hold: the two group actions read the selection, the list
   // replays an event on a double click, and the header's button goes back to the live stream.
   g_signal_connect(app.events_compare, "clicked", G_CALLBACK(on_group_clicked), &app);
   g_signal_connect(app.events_accumulate, "clicked", G_CALLBACK(on_group_clicked), &app);
@@ -993,9 +999,10 @@ GtkWidget* build_events_pane(App& app) {
   return app.events_box;
 }
 
-/// The recording switch, which lives here because it is a trigger option and not a pane option: it
-/// decides whether latches are written at all, and the pane that lists them must not be the only
-/// place to reach the control that stops them. Flipping it re-decides the pane's availability.
+/// The recording switch, which lives here because it is a trigger option and not an events-page option: it
+/// decides whether latches are written at all, and the page that lists them must not be the only
+/// place to reach the control that stops them. Flipping it re-decides the availability of the dock's
+/// Events block and of the page.
 void on_events_record_toggled(GObject* o, GParamSpec*, gpointer user) {
   App& app = *static_cast<App*>(user);
   app.event_recording = gtk_switch_get_active(GTK_SWITCH(o));
diff --git a/src/ui_probe.cpp b/src/ui_probe.cpp
index 265084d..8b884a7 100644
--- a/src/ui_probe.cpp
+++ b/src/ui_probe.cpp
@@ -5674,7 +5674,7 @@ gboolean events_probe_step(gpointer user) {
       gtk_toggle_button_set_active(GTK_TOGGLE_BUTTON(a->trigger_toggle), TRUE);
     }
     report_events_availability(*a, "after trigger on");
-    slideover_open(*a, "events");
+    open_events_page(*a);
     // Read straight after the open, before anything else can call the availability rule.
     report_events_availability(*a, "after events page opened");
     // ... and again a few frames later, still with no replay in the way: this is the *open alone*
@@ -5747,11 +5747,15 @@ gboolean events_probe_step(gpointer user) {
                    r.stem.c_str(), r.duration_s, r.pre_s, r.post_s, r.edge, r.signals, r.samples,
                    r.rate_hz, static_cast<unsigned long long>(r.seq), thumb_bytes,
                    a->event_recording ? 1 : 0, slideover_page(*a) == "events" ? 1 : 0);
-      // The first latch must not have moved the plot: the list is a slide-over page over the plot's
-      // edge, and the dock is a fixed column, so nothing about an event changes the plot's width.
+    }
+    // The first latch must not have moved the plot: the list is a slide-over page over the plot's
+    // edge, and the dock is a fixed column, so nothing about an event changes the plot's width. Both
+    // widths must be real (> 0): two unrealised -1s are equal and would read as stable.
+    {
       const int plot_w_now = a->area_widget != nullptr ? gtk_widget_get_width(a->area_widget) : -1;
-      std::fprintf(stderr, " plot_w_stable=%d plot_w=%d/%d", plot_w_now == a->dbg_events_plot_w ? 1 : 0,
-                   a->dbg_events_plot_w, plot_w_now);
+      std::fprintf(stderr, " plot_w_stable=%d plot_w=%d/%d",
+                   (plot_w_now > 0 && plot_w_now == a->dbg_events_plot_w) ? 1 : 0, a->dbg_events_plot_w,
+                   plot_w_now);
     }
     std::fprintf(stderr, "\n");
     std::fflush(stderr);
@@ -5898,10 +5902,7 @@ gboolean events_group_probe_step(gpointer user) {
     a->dbg_events_wait = 0;
     // Open the page first: its list is only rebuilt while the page is *open* (or by the Manage button), so
     // a selection made against a closed page selects rows that are not current.
-    if (slideover_page(*a) != "events") {
-      refresh_events_pane(*a);
-      slideover_open(*a, "events");
-    }
+    open_events_page(*a);
     // The selection *is* the input, so select the two newest rows the way a user does and press the
     // button: `on_group_clicked()` reads the list, not a parameter.
     GtkListBox* list = GTK_LIST_BOX(a->events_list);