A follow up related question - so I didn't want to start a new thread...

Using the following

Update P1

Set [password]=P2.[password]

from db1.dbo.people P1

Join db2.dbo.People P2 on P1.people_id=P2.people_id

This updates the single field in...

Thanks for the heads up on portability, it's good to know.  Good/bad news for the future it appears I will be pretty much one track minded - with MS SQL. ...

Wow!

Thanks!! 

The good news - your first example is what I was trying to do and don't know where I was off making it not...