VB Software suggest one please!

Folks I am new to VB. All of my VB experience has come through Excel. I have advanced enough to realize that Excel is very limited. (or at least it seems to be)

My ultimate goal is to create tools to use in Excel, on the Web, database development on the web, interact with IE etc...just a variety of ways.

I made a request to my IT dept to provide me with VB 6? However, they don't have it and I would have to purchase it myself :eek:

However, they do have Visual Studio? Would this be better for me?

Does anyone have any suggestions what is the best VB application to use? or is there a way I can see the various options of VB programs?

Your help is greatly appreciated!!

Visual Studio includes VB ;)

Starting to ues VB6 is a bad idea, as it is seriously out of date - you would be better off using VB.Net instead (eg: VB 2005).

Does studio include net also?

Visual Studio 2005 Express includes several languages, one of which is VB.NET.

Downloads page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

Robdog - So you feel the express free stuff is pretty good? I have NO experience with this stuff. I always just pay the money and get it all.

I'll try this one out.

The Express versions are great because they are free and you can try befoe you buy. Then if after using it for some time you find the need to use the features that only the paid versions support you can easily purchase and upgrade. :)

There are also free IDEs available. Look for ICSharpCode and Cassini.