Charles,
The Help file tells you the limits for these kind of things.
But the std answer is that a table can have up to 255 fields.
However, good DB design usually keeps that number well under 50.
Most tables have less than 20. Some have 1 or 2.

The *relationships* between the tables are the critical part of the design.
Once you see a properly designe DB, you will "get it" right away.
The problem is trying to figure it out on your own can be a real struggle.
So feel free to do some research on relational DB design and practice with
some throw away sample DBs before starting a serious project. Also feel free
to post here.

A designer should *always* create more than 1 DB. (This is known as a split
DB.)
The tables are in one DB with all the relationships and indexes.  (Back End
or BE)
The queries, forms, reports, code are all in the other DB.  (Front End or
FE)

The tables in the BE are linked to the FE.

There are many advantages to this structure. Updating the FE and sending out
a new copy without losing any data is a big one. Less corruption is another.