I don't use SQL DESIGNER...

And now that you tell me it doesn't support UPDATE/FROM I won't!

UPDATE/FROM is definitely a unique kind of syntax - I'm not sure how many sql-engines allow it.

We use it extensively here because you can do use the JOIN'd table on the right side of the SET xyz= statements - so you can do some very complex updates without a series of sub-queries or building temp tables in advance.

[edit] I just googled a bit and it might be because the Designer is using ODBC ? [/edit]