I came from Blackberry OS, too, and Android is a breath of fresh air!
One item I've found invaluable coming from BB is the Profiles app. It allows you to define various sound profiles that you can switch between from the notification bar, similar to the profile switcher that is on BB. You will find, though, that notification settings are specific to each app that does notification. Because of the way that is set up, you can control notification volume with the Profiles app, but you cannot control notification vibrate settings with the app (though, you can control phone call vibrate settings). In my case, I just set each notifying app to also vibrate and then I either get ring+vibe or just vibe alone.
-SR-