Designing tables is the first step in creating a database. You will need to figure out:

1. What data you want to store
2. How many tables to store it in, and
3. How the tables will relate to each other

Before you begin figuring out how many tables you need, and what data will be stored in each table, you may want to consider the analysis you will be doing on your data in order to make sure that the fields you need are included. Remember that the relationships between tables will allow you to use related data from multiple tables in your analyses.
Sometimes the easiest way to figure out how to store your data is to find an example of similarly structured data. The following SlideShow presents three different databases designed for different purposes.

Splitting Data Into Related Tables
The next lesson will explain how Access stores data in atable--the most basic database object.

Click the link below to take a short quiz on the database concepts.
Database Concepts - Quiz