Training videos on Visual Studio - http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/. Subscription isn't free, but there are some free videos you can watch to see if you'd like to subscribe. At any subscription level, this is well worth the money spent.
One of the big stumbling blocks is learning Visual Studio. There is quite a learning curve and I don't think it's much help for the individual designer. It's more useful in a large group of programmers. Personally, I've found we get more work done using simple editors than spending time trying to get VS to work right.
Quite a learning curve? Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that learning it isn't intuitive. By that, I mean that you can't just hack your way through the tool and learn as you go like you can with some other editors. Once you get the hang of how it works though, a whole new level of productivity opens up to you. That's productivity that will leave all other .NET code editors in the dust!
I must say it's all looking pretty complicated at the moment.
I feel your pain, as I'm actually still very much in a learning phase myself (I'm using VB.NET instead of C#). My employer is in the process of converting their old legacy mainframe code to .NET, and I was told I wouldn't be able to do any coding until I learned both Visual Studio and .NET. That's quite a lot to dump on someone at once; however, it's well worth the effort.
I've found that most employers want you to know both, so it's a good career move to put in the effort to do just that.
I've found that most employers want you to know both, so it's a good career move to put in the effort to do just that.
Where I live, a fairly large city, all the large employers use Java and very little .NET stuff. Only in the last few months have I seen a few ads for .net programmers, but it's small compared to Java and others.
I should have qualified my statement a bit, I see. I work for state government and most of our state agencies seem to be moving over to .NET. I wouldn't know about the demand for the work force in general.
<edit>And we're getting off-topic from the original discussion. I must apologize for that.</edit>
Thanks for all your comments. I appreciate there may be other solutions to web based programs but I feel the future defiantly points towards the .NET framework. I might as well start swatting now.
there may be other solutions to web based programs but I feel the future defiantly points towards the .NET framework.
Not true. Most of the web does not use .NET. .NET only runs on Windows computers so anything you create for it won't run on Macs or other non-Windows computers.
Always the naysayer, eh, Dr. Howard? One thing I failed to mention in my last post is this: The more technologies someone has under their belt, the better their chances of getting - or keeping - a job.
Yes, it's true that .NET only runs on Windows. However, I have heard that there are some open source initiatives underway that may change that. Whether or not that comes to pass though, my original comment remains true: Knowledge of more technologies equates to a better chance of employment.
I think I'll backtrack a bit on my statement. I just looked at a few things which confuse more than confirm anything. I see articles stating .NET usage on the web has evened up, or surpassed, Java. But you need IIS to run it. Yet, 80% of the web uses Apache as their server while only 20% uses IIS (all roughly). So how can .NET even up with Java?
Yes, there is the Mono project but, last I heard, it's not all there yet. One article talked of in-house use of .NET vs Java and there I can see it happening with an office full of Win computers. Otherwise, this doesn't make sense.
Not really. I find too many people too easily buying into the hype. I spent months learning asp.net, and .net itself, and I rejected it. So I have reason for disuading others from using it. Just like others would disuade you from using PHP or Java.
Look at Ajax, the latest hype. You would think it was a new html for the web. Everybody's talking it up but it's just a feature. .NET is Microsofts latest hyped up toy. Elsewhere I linked an article saying MS has even lost confidence in it.
Microsoft's "toy" has been around for a number of years now. With all the work they've put into it, I doubt seriously if it will fall by the wayside anytime soon, especially with a recently released new version of the .NET framework and of Visual Studio. It *is* being used extensively in industry, whether you want to believe it or not. What it's market share is, I cannot say. All I can say is that it *is* definitely worth adding to someone's skillset. You disagree, which is your prerogative. Fine. We'll just agree to disagree.
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One thing I failed to mention in my last post is this: The more technologies someone has under their belt, the better their chances of getting - or keeping - a job. 
