[peterlemer]

Brian - that all makes good sense - but a while back, when exploring a 2nd database for a particularly complex tax matter ( which worked well, btw) TPTB told me that although this could be done, OF wasn't designed to be used in this way.
I could certainly offload shedloads of stuff but I wonder what the fundamental design is - if one is supposed to be able to do everything in the one DB, then I'll try the rationalisations you mention.
There aren't a lot of due dates.
I've reset my styles prefs just to see what happens, will report back.