I think hither has to do with depth of field. I've found it useful when I've working close to a figure selecting polygons that are partly covered. By entering different values for the hither dial you can move the cut-away zone you get, revealing more of the part you need - does that make sense? I keep the main camera focal point set lower, since you usually want more of a wide-angle view than you do in close-ups. For dial names that run over the setting value: double-click the dial to bring up the dialog box and shorten the name. Makes the dials more legible, but it doesn't change the internal name in the .cr2 file that pose files, etc. use, so they still work. There's always something more to learn, or something you'd learned once but forgotten - thanks Cin, I'm off to alt-click things on the interface!