If you will be doing much development, you should probably get some training, either from a trainer or just going through the tutorials that come with FileMaker.
Depending on what version you are using, you may need FileMaker Advanced to be able to copy/import tables between files.
To solve your current problem (provided you are using FileMaker 7 or later), check the layout setup (in Layout mode, choose Layouts > Layout setup...) and make sure you have selected the right table occurrence in the part that says "Show records from:".