a user decided to copy a record and change a few things instead of creating a new record and retyping the info. now my "last name" field doesnt change with the records, and on other layouts calculated fields are showing #s where its supposed to be a calculation of first and last names. plus, on other layouts fields from the main db dont change with their related record...they all show the same data in the field, but if you check the original records they are mostly different. pretty much all hell broke lose with the copying of a record was selected....what should i do, other than shoot the user....i dont see what changed. please, give me any sort of advice!

thanx

travis

... change a few things

Most certainly. They got into layout mode, it sounds like. Simply duplicating a record wouldn't cause all of this. I believe your data is fine, although every time something is created or changed, it could now be referencing wrong relationships and messing you up further. You had better nail down what they did FAST!! And I wouldn't let anyone use the system until it was fixed. Not good, Travis.

Check first that they changed the table occurence that the layout is based upon. But if several layouts are affected, they did more than simply change a layout or field format. And if text calculations are showing numbers (on more than one layout?) then it sounds like they changed some field definitions - maybe even File References or relationships - who knows.

I'm not sure I would trust that you catch all the things they did. I would consider copying the data into a new copy of your design if you can't figure it out quickly. And then search for the latest modification dates and manually check each one.

And yep. Shoot them. But shoot yourself also. Your solution should have had protections in place. Deny access to Layout Mode and all design features. Most Users just do their job ... an occasional user is nosey and know-it-all and will run wild if given the chance. You need to protect everyone from that ONE user. Every business has one, I'm afraid. I wish you well in solving it.

thanx for the tips, i'll fill you in on my progress.

t

ok, im getting back to where i need to be except for one major thing that i see. my Lname field wont change with each record. it stays the same as the last data entered

to get where i am i exported and imported into an empty copy of my file.

travis

Make sure your Lname field on the layout is using the current table and is not a related field.

ok, i checked the Lname field and it is using my current table...ive concluded that doesnt matter too much because i can create a new field in place of Lname for another layout that uses Lname. a bigger problem i have is on a layout where im creating a cover. i have a field called CoverName where it caculates something like prof::Title & " " prof::Lname. this field is not showing any data whatsoever. i tried using prof2 in the calculation but that did not bring up any names either. why would the field not even give me a question mark???

Honestly, I have no idea without looking at it. Can you zip and attach a sample of your file?

yea, just let me delete the real data and make some dummy data.

ok, so if i do what i said i would do...the problem is fixed. its happening when i import the records.....originally when i had my file "complete" i made a copy of it with all records gone so i would have it in this situation. so i exported the data into three separate files, one for the order, one for our professor database, and one for our department db. so i import these back into the file and thats when the problem occurs. the message i receive claims no records are lost, so i didnt think the problem was there. new records i enter do show up on the layout that im having trouble with.

i dislike computers....why did i choose this path again?

If you have any auto-entered fields, your import needs to have the perform auto-enter options selected. Otherwise, they will not be populated. That could be why fields using relationships are not working.