Question: Geraley asks, "In Excel, how can I get certain rows to print on every page?"
Answer: Good question, Geraley. For those who are unaware, Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program has a feature that lets you say that the top several rows and/or the leftmost several columns should repeat on each page of a printout. This is due to the fact that most people structure their spreadsheets so that headings are at the top and left of the sheet. Go to the sheet you want to print. Now, the next step of that answer depends on which version of Excel you have. If it's the 2007 version, find the page layout tab in the ribbon's page setup group and click print titles. If it's the 2003 version or earlier, click File, then click Page Setup. That will open up the Page Setup dialog. Now, go to the Sheet tab and what you're looking for is called "rows to repeat at top" and you can set it there. We'll have links in the show notes to articles on the Microsoft Office website that show you how to do this for both Excel 2007 and Excel 2003 and earlier.
Cool Site: Virtual Bubble-Wrap: Who doesn't like to pop bubble-wrap? It's a great stress-reliever. What to do if you're all stressed out and no bubble wrap in sight? Fear not, you can find virtual bubble wrap online at virtual-bubblewrap.com. Go to the website and click the "PopNow!" link. You can then click to pop the bubbles, or engage what they call "manic mode" where no clicking is required to pop. The site is supported by donations and ads, so they'd like a dollar or two, but you can play the game all you want at no charge. You can also put the game on your non-commercial blog or website for free. For a fee, commercial websites can license a version of the game that has their logo on it. Just a little something to waste a bit of time, but I like it.
Cool Gadget: Roxio Easy VHStoDVD: Today's gadget I actually own, and that's why it's this week's cool gadget. It's from a company called Roxio, and is called Easy VHStoDVD. It consists of a USB-based video capture device, a short USB extension cable, and another short cable that has RCA audio inputs, an RCA composite video input, and an S-Video input. You can plug anything that has those outputs into it, although it's designed to be used with a VCR. Currently, I'm using it with my son's Playstation 3 to capture copies of our Blu-Ray movies. I should mention that this method is absolutely legal because it uses the "analog hole" and doesn't bypass any copy protection. But the reason for this device's existence is to make copies of your VHS tapes. The quality of tapes degrades over time, so before you lose altogether those videos you took of your kids with your old VHS camcorder, you can capture them into digital form with the Roxio Easy VHStoDVD. If the gadget itself was the only thing you got, that would be great, but the package also comes with software to let you burn your videos to DVD, complete with menus.
It's All "Geek" To Me: SMART: This week's term is smart. It's an acronym, as you might have guessed, and it stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology. It's a technology in your hard drive that keeps an eye on the health of your drive. Windows and disk diagnostic programs can read this information and get an idea when your hard drive is going out before you lose data.
