>If I use an append from, will the extra field in table2 cause a problem?, since the extra field has a default value that generates unique id (nextid.prg), append from doesn't seem to fire this default value, only insert into.

works for me. I have 1 table with 2 fields (c1 c(10), i1 I default recno())
and anothe with 1 field c1
if I appedn from c2 i got the dafult values created as designed.

don't use scan, it's alot slower


Peter