Your original suggestion did the trick, I'm pretty sure. I cloned the db, ran recovery on the clone, then exported the data in each layout, and then imported the merge data, and it seems to be working well w/o recreating the problem. Just want to follow up to say thanks for your help and also for other novice types who might have a similar problem to know how my problem resolved. The guy who helped me at FM was named John too and since this database is my whole PhD life, perhaps I will name my first child after you guys :-)