Yes. Ripple editing helps to avoid free space between items by pushing the right content to the left closing the gaps. It needs a little practice. Because working with many tracks can create a mess if you don't look out what you are doing. Ripple editing has two modes: One works only on selected tracks, the other works for the whole project.
You should use it if you plan to cut out certain areas from a speech or a song. Or if you create videos and need to cut or past clips leaving the rest of the tracks in sync with music etc.
But once you know how it works, its a real helper!
And as i mentioned. If you already did the cuts and want to remove the space, just select the space (time selection) and right click "remove contents of selection"!
Edit: the dropbox links are now visible.