All NIH personnel are invited to "beat the heat" with the latest and greatest in free computer training. Summer term 2005 has just begun for the CIT Training Program. It offers over 100 computer topics designed for NIH scientists and staff. A full description of the course schedule is available at http://training.cit.nih.gov.

There are a number of new end-user classes. Adobe Acrobat — Introduction shows how to create the PDF documents that are the required format for many scientific journals. Microsoft Project will include tips on scheduling projects, reporting project data and efficiently tracking and analyzing projects. FrontPage Advanced Topics will cover items such as creating forms, inserting cascading style sheets and using meta tags. FileMaker Pro 7 Advanced will show how to create integrated systems of databases linking together seamlessly. Finally, Forensics for IT Systems discusses how to use a compromised system to determine the dimensions of an attack.

Two new classes in Excel include Excel Topics — Formulas and Excel Advanced Topics — PivotTables. Basic classes in Excel are offered through HHS University at http://learning.hhs.gov or free online at http://lms.learning.hhs.gov.

New courses for developers include Python and XML Basics. Python for Programmers introduces this language, which excels at reformatting data, gluing together other programs and manipulating long strings of text. XML Basics gives a 6-session hands-on overview of this topic.

New courses for scientists include ImageJ, topics in SPSS and Proteome BioKnowledge Library. ImageJ, authored by Wayne Rasband of NIMH, is a public-domain Java image processing program inspired by NIH Image for the Macintosh. SPSS Clementine Data Mining reviews the basic operations and environment of the SPSS Clementine data mining software. What's New in SPSS 13 is an introduction to SPSS geared primarily to those new to the software. Finally, Proteome BioKnowledge Library offers training in this manually curated, protein-centric database containing information about all proteins in human, mouse, rat, C. elegans, S. pombe, S. cerevisiae and pathogenic fungi.

New courses for Mac users include OS X, OS X Deployment/ Management and Tiger Server. Getting Started with the Mac on OS X is designed to help users regardless of experience level. PC users new to the Mac may find this particularly helpful. OS X Deployment/Management Seminar discusses how to streamline the process of installing and configuring Mac OS X on large numbers of computers. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Server will show the various features of this newest version of X Server.

Volunteers are needed to teach classes. Did you know that most instructors volunteer their time and talent to bring these sessions to NIH staff? If you have a topic you would be interested in presenting to the NIH community, call (301) 594-6248.