My question is about setting up the table.  I have a large table to track capital work projects individually identified with a capital works number (in addition to the Access id).  One column is for estimates and there are often estimates for multiple vendors.  Should I have different fields, e.g. estimate 1, estimate 2, etc. or should I just make separate entries for each estimate.  This would mean one capital work number might have 5 different access id numbers!  Help!

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Reply from Richard Rost:

Whenever you say that something can have multiple entries, you should be looking at another table. Even something like phone numbers. If you only want to stick to 1 or possibly 2 phone numbers, then multiple fields in your table are fine. However, if you want the ability to track 3, 4, 5 phone numbers (work, home, cell, fax, etc.) then you really should be looking at a SECOND table.

Now, I don't cover how to do this in my BEGINNER lessons. The first Expert lesson will talk about setting up relationships between multiple tables. If you want to learn it NOW, pick up a copy of Access 201 or my Relationship Seminar.