I've spent many, many hours playing with and trying to learn Vegas 7 but as it turns out,I'm learning most of what I know from groups like this one.

The other day I decided that it's a bit disorganized to read random posts and that instead of just spending all day on the internet and then trying what's discussed in the posts, I drove to 2 major USA bookstores (Borders and Barnes & Noble) to find a good book describing the features of Vegas and how to use them, in layman's terms.

I would have been satisfied to find a good book for even Vegas 6 but neither store had anthing other than one coffee stained copy for $50, which I chose not to buy.

I know the program help files are pretty good when you know specifically what you're looking for, but if you're just trying to learn from scratch, there must be a better way. The manuals that came with the program are somewhat helpful, but if you don't know the video editing 'language' (like what a ripple is), the manual quickly becomes difficult

Is there a particular instruction book for Vegas newbies that you all recommend?
Also how about the DVDs that I see advertised on eBay for $30-35?
Does anyone here have experience with them?

There are plenty of on-line tutorials out there, try, VASST