Development strategy -- advice please

I am about to development an application but my experience in developing in a microsoft environment is limited. Some advice would be appreciated to help me choose the best strategy.

I have installed the following tools:
Visual Studio 2005 Tools for office
Office 2003

The application is for distribution to many individuals who may or may not have Office installed on their personal computers.

Data is to be included in the distribution but including provision for bi-directional data updates via a central internet webserver is essential.

The web server is unix running apache & mysql

I am experienced user of Access and accustomed to building standalone desktop applications using access but have limited experience with VB. It would be nice to be able to build the core of the application this way.

I have no experience of using the access runtime model-- I do not want (or need) to use mSQL or MySQL.

In addition to the database function the application incorporates multiple tasks none of which are overly complex.

I have not got my head around the significance of .NET nor do I really grasp exactly how to move beyond just building a database application using Access and moving to creating a distributed standalone application that is more than"just a database" <chuckles>.

I am always happy about getting onto learning curves -- what bothers me is finding out late in the cycle that I got onto the wrong curve to start with!!!!

So pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for suggestions/questions.

david