I've never really understood the new architecture of FM since V7 (being a veteran of earlier versions) so I just found out the hard way after deleting what I guess is the core relationship.

All the records are now missing and in layout mode all the fields display

The file still displays the table in the Table|Fields|Relationships setup window.

How do I reconnect the fields and get the records back again? I tried just creating a new relationship to the table but all I got were those ::fieldname things.

I gather there are some detailed instructions on how to do this somewhere?

I'm also just happy to extract the content directly from the table - its just plain text.

Layouts are based off a table occurrence (TO), NOT the base table itself. Therefore, if you have deleted out the TO from your graph, any layouts that have references to that TO will now not work. You will have to repoint all of those fields to a new TO of that base table that you want. If you have a backup, then I would suggest that you just go to that if you have lots of broken fields. :

Thanks - I needed to read something on the subject. Its only a few fields to reconnect but I've no idea how. (my backup failed so that's gone). I found a how-to for FileMaker 8 but not 7.

You can just double click the field and select the new TO that you want and then the field that you want.

You may also want to take a look at this thread from the other day. There is a link I reference that is a great PDF for you to read. It will give you good perspective.

http://www.fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/200707/post/315382