As soon as I read post 2 I thought the data layout would be the typical problem posed by Excel users and it looks like that is the case. @Curious, I suggest you read up on db normalization (or you will likely be here often because of the lack) and consider this as well
http://allenbrowne.com/NoYesNo.html
Normalization Parts I, II, III, IV, and V
http://rogersaccessblog.blogspot.com...on-part-i.html
and/or
http://holowczak.com/database-normalization/
Then there's must-reads on bad words to use, naming conventions, table lookup fields, multi value field, autonumbers if you want to make your journey less painful. I have links for those if you want them.
The more we hear silence, the more we begin to think about our value in this universe.
Paraphrase of Professor Brian Cox.