On Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:25:17 -0400, shirl
wrote:

You have the right instincts. Indeed the previous developer did nobody
any favors with this very bad design.
MakeTable queries may work, but I would rather first create the new
tables manually, with their correct fields, primary keys, and
relationships. This is the part that is most difficult for beginners,
but there is a lot of help out there if you want to learn. For example
he
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...y+crystal&aq=0
is a series of videos by a fellow MVP.

Once the database design is in place, create some Append and perhaps
Update queries to copy the data from the old design to the new.

-Tom.
Microsoft Access MVP



Hi

I have a database that was set up very quickly a few years ago, it is
for recording the booking out of equipment to staff at a college.

The database now has over 1500 records and I would like to change how it
works as there is lots of duplicate data and I want to make data entry
easier for the person who has to enter the data.

It consist of one table [Equipment] which has a autonumber primary key
ID containing a list of equipment. Another table [Dept] with an
autonumber primary key containing departments. A third table [Bookings]
with an autonumber primary key ID this contains the staff names, dates
of equipment booked out a field called resource which looks at the
equipment table, area which looks at the department table.

My problem is that as the staff and details of resources booked out are
all in one table, this data is duplicated as each time something is
booked out we have to enter the staff details again.

What I would like is a form which contained the staff details and a
subform which showed the equipment being booked out. I have tried to
make two new tables using a make table query from the [Bookings] table,
but my problem is that when I do that both new tables for the staff and
the bookings both have the same ID as they came from the same table.

How can I separate the staff and bookings yet still keep them linked so
that I can have a form something like the Northwind database, where you
see a record for a person and all of their bookings?

I hope this makes sense, as you can guess I am not an Access expert and
only use it occasionally.

Thanks
Shirl