I'm mostly a newbie. I am NOT a SQL-er and am completely dependent upon the Access way of what might be called "visual programming."
The purpose of this database is to house data regarding my High School Class of 1967 (50th Reunion). I have six tables: 1-Names (the primary table from which everything else descends. The remaining five tables are 2-phone numbers, 3-email addresses, 4-Physical Addresses, 5-Mailing Address and lastly 6-Photos.
Before someone says this should just be a flat file, consider 1-Names (fields split the name into first, middle, last, goes by name, married, previous married names, spouse name Birthday, gender, Class year [we carry some "honorary members" who actually graduated from our school with a different class], Inactive [don't bother me; just leave me alone], Deceased, Death Date, Obituary, Phil's list (the most recent scribe)--were they on his list, did we loose someone over the years, etc. The other tables not not as large, but do contain a variety of datatypes (as indicated by the name).
All that said, here is my problem:
I made a GIANT newbie error. I discovered an error in 1-Names which could only be fixed by turning off the Unique primary key. The fix worked BUT my HORRIBLE mistake was neglecting to Graduation Program (Y/N) having been listed confirms class membership; and finally to promptly restore the unique primary key.