access 2000 TABLE question

I have this access database tbl that has customer information (name, address, city state, etc.. on
it along with different types of steel cuts. I.E. miter cut , precision cutting, punch,
etc..

Total of 40 different cuts & bends.

When the user adds a customer information in, they place an 'x' in the field of the cut or bend that this customer has.
I.E. 'x' miter cuts , 'x' Laser Cuts

Everything is in 1 table. Want to know if I can take the 40 different cuts/bends fields out of the main tbl, and put them into another tbl.
I want to have 2 tbls. 1st table with customer info, 2nd table with the cuts.
Don't know how to start or do this.
Any ideas.
Thanks...

 

Yes ... but:

Yes, you can easily split your dB into multiple tables (and should since it is much more efficient)

But, your esisting records will have to be re-entered to a certain extent since the new structure will not work with the old structure.

And as a general thought - the Northwinds sample data base that comes with Access provided some excellent ideas and suggestions for how you might want to set things up.

In general, you will be going from a flat-file design (like big index cards) to a relational database. The tables mentioned below are new ones BTW. Names can be anything other than the table name you are using now.

Table-1 = customer information: Contains only static customer information. Business name, address, phone number(s), etc. and maybe some additional fields for things like how they pay, do they have credit with you, and other items of interest to your business.

Table-2 = cut information: and I have no idea what all you want to put in here but probably material information in addition to "cut" information.

Table-3/4/5/n (maybe) = your material ordering information - details on what you get from which suppliers or something. Any sort of static information you want to be able to match up with a customer or an order.

Each of the above tables will need to have a primary key that is unique. Table 1 may be a customer number or something. Table 2 could be the cut name. And so on.

Orders Table - where you tie it all together. For data entry, you will need a field that matches the primary key of each of your other tables plus what ever fields are unique to an order such as date placed, date due, delivery information, etc.

For the "orders" table, you can set the fields that match the primary key on the static tables with a drop-down if you want to make it easier to locate the static record you want to use. Maybe use customer names to display when you click on a field, and cut names for that one.

The order records then will only contain a primary key that allows information to be pulled from the static table as needed for reports, etc. No need to clutter up your order records with all that static information.

Once you have all the tables built and if you were careful about how you set the fields up in the new tables, you can probably export data from your existing table to populate the new ones rather than having to re-key all the information. Or it may be easier to just print reports from the existing and re-key the stuff. Hard to say without seeing your existing dB.

And now that I have probably raised more questions than I have given you answers, if you provide more details, maybe I (or others) can give you more specific help. I usually don't accept personal email about forum topics but in this case, if you want to send me details, I'll give you specific answers and post a synopsis on here just to give the thread some closure.