First, if you're interested in yet another pure introduction to programming Visual Basic, you can try the About Visual Basic Learning Visual Basic tutorial. Rather than being based on VBA as this one is, this tutorial assumes you have access to the VB 6 development environment but is also intended for beginning programmers.

Since this introduction is based on just one of the Microsoft Office applications, one of the most obvious steps is to try out the others that support VBA. As mentioned in Lesson 1, most other Office applications support VBA in addition to a whole host of other vendor software. Once you feel comfortable with more than one application, you can use them together to build systems that combine the power of several systems at once. The About Visual Basic VBA Tutorial series focuses in on using multiple VBA applications in one system.

Another inexpensive way to program in Visual Basic is to try VBScript! This subset of Visual Basic (it won't do everything that the compiled Visual Basic language can do) is priced right. It's free! But you can only use it for certain types of programming problems. You can learn more about it with the About Visual Basic Learn VBScript Tutorial.

Another main direction for Visual Basic Development is the full VB 6 development system. This presents one problem to the new programmer: Microsoft is not doing anything to help you get started with VB 6 these days. There are no bargains on full VB 6 development systems. When you can find them at all, they're generally priced at, or very near, full list price and that was never cheap. If you already have VB 6 or you can find a used copy, this is a great direction, however. VB 6 remains the most productive professional programming environment available. You can try the About Visual Basic Learn VB 6 Tutorial for more on this.

Microsoft has clearly made .NET their flagship development environment. Support for VB 6 is currently scheduled to be dropped by Microsoft in 2005. And VB .NET, in fact, really is that good! VB 6 is the champion for being easy to learn and productive to use. Microsoft has a lot of work ahead of them to make VB .NET more 'programmer friendly'. But VB .NET is clearly the champion in power and capability. The .NET development environment is at least as advanced as any other programming technology today. In my opinion: better! But anyone who tells you it's easy ... well ... don't buy any insurance from that person. More good news: Microsoft knows they have to offer a lot of incentive to coax people into .NET and there are deals available. One of the best is described in an About Visual Basic article HERE. If you want a tutorial to help you learn VB .NET, you don't have to go any further than the About Visual Basic Learn Visual Basic .NET Tutorial.

So ... GO FOR IT! Visual Basic just doesn't seem to have any limits on the horizon. It's a programming technology for everybody! May all your code be bug free and may a virus never find your system.