Normalization problem & form to update multiple records

[Gilfdz]

Hello

I have found to have some design issues. My main table (ENGINEERING) is not normalized so for every product i have either "1" or "0" under LEVEL1, LEVEL2, LEVEL3, LEVEL4....LEVEL7, same for VARIABLE1...VARIABLE7, as im using check boxes to enter the data throught the form ENGINEERING.
LEVELS and VARIANTS simply represent different categories a product can belong to. (variant beign a higher category, thats the only difference between them)

My current, NOT NORMALIZED, ENGINEERING table looks like this:

ProductNameFrench---Level1---Level2...---Level7---Variable1...---Variable7
pencil------------------0---------1---------1---------0-------------1
pen--------------------1---------1---------0---------1-------------1
.
..
...

So trying to normalize my design ive tried to change my table design into something like this:

I tried creating separate tables:
ENGINEERING
ProductNameFrench
Weight (just to show that there are more data entered for every product)

LEVEL with fields:
ProductNameFrench
Level

VARIABLE with:
ProductNameFrench
Variable

however the problem i have now is that in the ENGINEERING FORM, the user selects ONE product, and for that product he selects the level and variable check boxes to which that product belongs. I DONT want the user to have to create a record for the same product every time he checks for ONE box. So what can i do so that after selecting ONE product the user can check as many boxes: of variable1, variable2....variable7 or/and level1...level7 the product belongs to, so that in each table (variable and level) one independent record is created for every independent selection???

I want to achieve something like this:

ENGINEERING TABLE
pencil----8kg

LEVEL TABLE
PENCIL----- level2
PENCIL----- level7
PEN---------level1
PEN---------level2

VARIABLE TABLE
pencil---variable7
PEN-----variable1
PEN-----variable7

this is what i would need in order to normailze (i think) BUT i dont know how the user can do this WITHOUT having to select the product (pencil) 3 different times (each with every "option") in the FROM.

Please help.

 

[coyote]

Normalization

what are you trying to achieve?
In this post its not very clear.
In the main products form if you are using checkboxes for the Levels and Variables then in the underlying table the value stored is either 1 or 0 depending whether the box is checked or not.
What are Levels and Variables?
What is the relationship between Products and Engineering Tables.
My advise would be Study the relationships in your database and also determine what you want to achieve.
Use this link and look at this tutorial I have found it very helpful

http://www.sfubusiness.ca/motmba/courses/bus756/shared/pages/tutorials.html

You can even download it