This is a very newbie-ish question relating to how match fields work,
but I can seem to wrap my head around it, so here goes.

Supposing I have two tables linked by a field called "Name". The bulk
of the data is stored in Table 1. I then want to import a bunch of
records from a spreadsheet where the "name" values match entries
already in Table 1, but where the spreadsheet also has some new fields
that exist only in Table 2. Should I import the data into Table 2? If
so, won't that create a disconnect where Table 1 and Table 2 have
overlapping records with the same "name" value?

I hope this question is clear, as I had some trouble figuring out how
to word it.

J- that's right, if you have two different kinds of data that involve
the same set of names, you can use the name field as a "match field."
One example would be where you have a set of customer addresses and a
set of customer orders, and you can keep the data separate but linked
using the name.

If you wind up with a lot of records, you may want to give every name a
unique number. The "overlapping" isn't a problem, it actually helps you
identify the related information in table 2 -- up until there starts to
be duplicates, for example if there were two different "Joe Smith"s you
wanted to keep track of.

I think I can explain my confusion a bit better.

Let's say again that two tables are linked by a match field called "org
name". If a layout displays table 2 data, then I can successfully
import new organizations into table 2, but then if someone is browsing
a layout of table 1 data, they won't see any organizations that were
imported into table 2, even if the "org name" match field value is
exactly the same for both tables. Furthermore, if a person adds a new
organization in a table 1 layout, they won't see that organization if
they switch to a different layout displaying table 2 data. I would
have thought that if the match field value was exactly the same in two
tables linked by that match field, then a record created in one table
would show up in layouts displaying info from either table, not just
the table where the record was created. But this this really boils
down to my not understanding what it means in a practical sense for
fields to be match fields.

What I don't want to do is have all my fields in one table, but rather
have separate tables but be able to view all organizations regardless
of which table an organization was created in.

As always, thanks in advance for the thoughtful feedback!

Actually, never mind on this thread; I need to ask a different
question, so I'm going to start a separate thread.