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Recognizing that a void had been created by AppleWorks being discontinued, last winter Filemaker, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple Inc., released Bento, a new Mac-only personal database application selling for a much more affordable $49 ($99 for a family pack).
Version 1 of Bento proved an overnight runaway success, but as with most first revision technology products, it left some things to be desired, which has been addressed with the release of Bento 2 on October 14. I've been checking out a pre-release copy of Bento 2 for a week or so, and it's definitely a solid and worthwhile upgrade, with an improved user interface (more attractive to my sense of aesthetics), and a raft of new/enhanced features.
The program's name, "Bento", refers to a type of Japanese cuisine - an entree with a variety of different foods usually consisting of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. served in a multi-compartment dish or tray.
The software Bento takes its inspiration from the compartmentalized trays used to serve bento lunches and dinners, as a digital place to store and retrieve conveniently various bits of information like your Address Book contacts, to-do lists, iCal data, or even word processor and spreadsheet documents. Everything is in one place. And yet the contents are not all jumbled together, but rather stored neatly in compartments.
What Bento isn’t is a general-purpose database like full-fledged, $299 FileMaker - more a "personal" database intended to help organize and simplify the details of one individual's life, but where you can create your own databases rather than just using what's served up in, say, Address Book. Perhaps in aid of emphasizing that distinction from much-more -powerful and complex FileMaker, Bento's designers have chosen not to employ terms like "database" and "table" and substituted what they evidently think will be the familiar (at least to iTunes users) "library" and "collection." I'm not sure that this doesn't actually confuse matters a bit, but what do I know?
Bento looks, feels and works like other Mac applications, is designed specifically for Mac and closely resembles Apple's own iLife apps such as the Tunes, Keynote, iWeb, iPhoto, and the Finder. Bento organizes data into three levels: "libraries," which consist of "collections," which in turn contain "records."
The user interface, which was very nice in Bento version 1, has been facelifted and enhanced with version 2 with a more conventional and I think more aesthetically pleasing two-pane UI window as opposed to the erstwhile Bento 1's three-pane motif. The information that used to be displayed in the far right pane now appears in the bottom section of the left pane.
Organizing your your contacts, calendars, appointments, to-do lists, projects and other personal data by creating Bento collections is analogous to organizing your music by creating iTunes playlists. Bento's user interface window follows the familiar three columns motif. the left pane containing a list of your databases, which Bento calls “libraries,” and their “collections,” which would be the Bento equivalent of playlists.
Installing Bento is reasonably straightforward, being a simple drag & drop operation rather than requiring an installer run, although you do have to type or paste in an alphanumeric license key to use the program in licensed mode.
Aside from the facelift, with Bento 2 users can now export spreadsheet data from Excel and Numbers directly into Bento to view and use that data in Bento 2 forms, and you can also now export Bento 2 data into spreadsheet apps like Numbers and Excel. Bento 2 features convenient iTunes-style searching, quick sorting, instant summary stats, and AppleWorks database data may also now also be imported and exported to and from Bento 2 via new support for tab-delimited files.
Bento 2 also adds spreadsheet style "no set-up" data entry with intuitive "fill-downs" plus the ability to edit records and modify forms without changing modes; and to view and edit table and detail records in split-view on one screen. You can also instantly link to Google Maps and online chat.
"We found that the majority of Bento users were keeping track of their lists in spreadsheets, so we've added many new features to Bento that will make spreadsheet users very comfortable, while also accomplishing much more using Bento," explains Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc.
Ten attractive new ready-to-use themes, ranging from "Bookworm's" deep leathery browns to cool blues and hues with "Swimming Pool" have been added to the previous selections, and can instantly transform the look of a record, changing its background and fonts without any need for database design savvy.
With Bento 2 you can also share templates with other Bento 2 users.
When you launch Bento, you are given the option of importing your existing Address Book, iCal Events, iCal Tasks and Projects, data. You can also create your own libraries from scratch or using one of the provided templates for categories like projects, contacts, to-do items, events and files and so forth. The templates contain sample data fields with sample text that you can replace with your own information. Fields my also be deleted or added, but you have to use the default field location grid.
Searching for any record in any library using Bento Search or Advanced Find feature compares to searching for a song in iTunes or searching for any file using Spotlight.
You can also create a "Smart Collection" of all information that matches one or more criteria. For example: all people whose City = Santa Clara and whose Company Name = FileMaker; or all iCal Tasks for which Priority = High and Completion Date =
Empty. Collections can also contain links to related documents, URLs contacts' email addresses and instant messaging accounts, for clickable access.
In summary, if you're looking for an application to help organize your life, but don't want to climb the learning curve (or pay the cost of admission to the FileMaker world) and are familiar with the way iTunes and iPhoto work, Bento is well worth checking out, especially since there is a free 30-day demo available.
A minor Bento 2.0.2 has been released with support for five additional languages: French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch.. Version 2.0.2 also resolves some issues related to overall stability.
System requirements:
Bento 2 requires Mac OS X v.10.5.4 Leopard or higher on a Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor. A minimum of 512MB of RAM and 1GB of hard drive space is recommended. A CD drive is required for installation of boxed software.
Bento 2 is priced at $49 U.S., or $99 U.S. for a family pack of five licenses, and is available on the FileMaker Web store ( store.filemaker.com ). Bento 2 will also be offered exclusively at the Apple Web store (store.apple.com) and Apple retail stores until October 27 and through other online and retail stores after this date.
Charles W. Moore
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