Filemaker Releases Bento 4, Updates iPhone and iPad Apps

[NAG]

Yeah, you can get a trial at:

http://www.filemakertrial.com/

 

[bilboa]

wasted so much time trying to get Bento to do what I wanted... sigh, should I try again?

Just from my POV, Bento is not a database as we all understand it. It's a fancy spreadsheet. I mean that lovingly, but if you really want to know the difference between Bento and complex db's, it's that you basically get 2 dimensions. It's a very easy thing, and you can do some fancy looking forms, but the data behind it is always one table.

If you need to use more than one table at the same time, you need something more robust. If you need to track relatively simple things, aka no "dependencies", this is perfect.

I hope that helps someone.

Agreed. I found Bento to be very frustrating. I understand that it's not meant to be a full featured relational database, but I found it to be so dumbed down that even for simple home use I always ran into limitations that made it frustrating. For instance it only has one-to-many relationships, no one-to-one or many-to-one relationships between tables. It has no support for default values for field. Poor search cababilities. Etc. It also isn't very good as a spreadsheet since the formula support is so weak. I bought the first version, and have read the "What's new" list for each subsequent version, and it seems like all they add is more presentation features. I've just ended up using spreadsheets or Filemaker. I'm sure there is a narrow niche it fills well, which drumcat described, but for most people I think Numbers or Filemaker are better options.

 

[mrial]

Just from my POV, Bento is not a database as we all understand it. It's a fancy spreadsheet. I mean that lovingly, but if you really want to know the difference between Bento and complex db's, it's that you basically get 2 dimensions. It's a very easy thing, and you can do some fancy looking forms, but the data behind it is always one table.

If you need to use more than one table at the same time, you need something more robust. If you need to track relatively simple things, aka no "dependencies", this is perfect.

I hope that helps someone.

Bento is a database. It will do some relational features such as a record relating to a AddressBook group (although crippled). What you're talking about is a flat database which has the advantage over a spreadsheet to grow to many, many thousands of records long ... spreadsheets by the nature of its calculations must be finite long or the computer could never resolve the calculated values.

 

[nastebu]

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It's quite perfect for this use. It makes viewing and entering data much easier than trying to use just the address book. And you can keep the apple address book linked to lots of other fields with different types of data.

As someone else said, the real weakness is calculations. In previous versions, it just can't do them with any sophistication.

 

[rhett7660]

Bento, is as a stand-alone limited database for the non-technical, definitely better than MS Access. But on the other hand the uses for a non-techical database are mostly limited to things like 'my wine collection'.
I don't know much about the professional variant Filemaker, but if you could integrate Bento with a more professional, more widespread db,
it could certainly be more appealing for very small businesses and self-employed people.

Please define better the MS Access?? These are two completely different animals and Bento is not even close to being in the same league as Access.

I to was one of the frustrated ones trying to get things done from within Bento. Just not enough of the tools behind the scenes to get things done. To do simple calculations can be chore.

If you haven't done so already, make sure to visit the forums and most if not all your questions you have about the product can be found and you will see and read the frustration people have had or are having with the product.

The end result is a nice form over a spreadsheet. That is about it in a nutshell.

 

[hermes369]

Bento and address fields

Until you can search fields that contain fields (like home and work addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses), Bento is useless to me. It is nice-looking, though.

 

[hchung]

I'm a teacher, and I thought Bento would be fantastic as a Grade book. Not so. Yes it can keep track of grades, but I have not found a way to make dynamic equations to figure out student and class averages using Bento. Just not powerful enough. For a great Grade book, recommend pages (tables can use equations) or numbers.

Cheers

I use Bento to do running totals of stuff I buy and sell.

You'll probably want to use the summary row in a table to get the average of a field (GPA?). Then to restrict to a class, I'm guessing you'll have to have a collection that makes up all the students in that class. Or a smart collection.

Didn't use Bento 3 much until I got the iPad app. I found the iPad app was great in collecting data on the go ... like when I organized a large party and could keep track of who paid for what as we went along buying flowers, cake etc. I just carried the iPad along with me entering the data. Looks like now I can get a summation of costs with the new simple list. The iPad would sync over a local network so I could do more advanced work on my MBP. The lack of labels has been a major complaint for Bento 3 which looks like now has been addressed. The new location field requires a network connection ... would be great if it used the iPad's gps for on the go data collecting.

Network connection for location? I'd think it'd use the same corelocation wifi/gps that everything else does?

Is Bento useful if you just want to keep track of personal networking information? My girlfriend is an actor and she would like to keep track of people she auditions for and who she works with (so she might have multiple entries of auditions for a specific casting director). She can use Excel (a bit), but maybe the graphical nature of Bento is better. For example, everyone in her business has person websites, so she can pull down a picture and put it in the Bento file easily. Can you do much in the way of organizing with your Bento files? Like could she pull up all "Casting Directors" and print out an address label for them if she wanted to do a mass mailing?

Any suggestions on something better than Bento?

It's possible. Bento syncs with the addressbook on your mac.
The related records list lets you associate multiple records in another library like addressbook with a record in a different library.

Said differently, you'd have a table (Bento calls them Libraries) of Auditions.
Then have a related records table inside Auditions that shows records from Address Book. The records in this related records table would be a list of the people in her address book that's involved with this audition?

Makes it easier so that you'd only need to enter info for a person once into address book.

If you wanted to make address labels of casting directors, then searching for anybody who's tagged as a casting director in the address book library and making labels from that result should do it.

(my hobby data is in bento 3, and I've done larger db work in the past (postgresql for teh win), so my terminology might be inconsistent)

 

[ryanide]

frustrating!!!!

I thought this was going to be a perfect solution to managing a pile of contact data that I collected at a tradeshow, but after a day of fussing with it I am no further than I was this morning.

First off, when it syncs with iPhone or iPad, the mobile versions look nothing like what you setup on the computer. The have tons of extra fields and are completely formatted in a different design.

Second, document attachments are only references to files on your computer, they are not embedded. So, attaching a scan of a contact's business card or some other document, won't give you a copy on your mobile device.

There is no way to sync between a laptop and your desktop. WTF?

Related records does not seem to work from the Address book to other "libraries". So, if you download the Bento Contact & Customer template from the Template exchange, you have to enter your contact again rather than select/drag them from your address book.... I don't understand that one!

Integration with the iCal/email events seems pretty wonky. If you want to see a list of all the emails related to your contact, you have to choose them one at a time, this is not automatic. If you change something on your iCal event, it gets unlinked from your contact.

Really, this is a huge waste of my time and money. What a disappointment !!

 

[ryanide]

Just saying...

I thought this was going to be a perfect solution to managing a pile of contact data that I collected at a tradeshow, but after a day of fussing with it I am no further than I was this morning.

First off, when it syncs with iPhone or iPad, the mobile versions look nothing like what you setup on the computer. The have tons of extra fields and are completely formatted in a different design.

Second, document attachments are only references to files on your computer, they are not embedded. So, attaching a scan of a contact's business card or some other document, won't give you a copy on your mobile device.

There is no way to sync between a laptop and your desktop. WTF?

Related records does not seem to work from the Address book to other "libraries". So, if you download the Bento Contact & Customer template from the Template exchange, you have to enter your contact again rather than select/drag them from your address book.... I don't understand that one!

Integration with the iCal/email events seems pretty wonky. If you want to see a list of all the emails related to your contact, you have to choose them one at a time, this is not automatic. If you change something on your iCal event, it gets unlinked from your contact.

Really, this is a huge waste of my time and money. What a disappointment !!

Guess I could be wrong about some of my frustrations. Seems that it does have sharing of databases across your own network. However, when I initially tried to export my library from my laptop to my desktop, all the formatting and layouts that I had created on the laptop disappeared and were transferred to the desktop... really unexpected.

I re-synced the iphone and ipad to my desktop and the attached media document in the first form was moved to the mobile device for offline viewing. However secondary forms that had attached documents were not included.

I think I will be able to make this work, but its just really annoying when things are presented as "Apple" easy and in fact feel like "Microsoft" complicated.

 

[KnoxHarrington]

If you want to give this a try before you shell out the $49, there is a free trial version available here:

http://www.bentotrial.com/trial/form/entry.aspx?try=bento-pp-nav-try

I've never been particularly impressed with Bento, but I'll probably give the trial a whirl to see if it's anything I would want to use.

 

[AndyAtTheCroft]

Bento 4 Crash Bug??

I acquired Bento 4 this evening and installed it. It repeatedly crashes on start-up. A quick Google search suggests that this problem is widespread.
At least one website has mused aloud on the fact that Bento 4 remains on the AppStore despite these serious bug reports

 

[gb1631]

Well I updated from Bento 3 to Bento 4 today! It didn't crash or show any start-up problems. I loved Helix and still use it on my OS 4.x Computers for serious database things. Compared to the relational helix database Bento is a 'toy.'

I have a Verizon iPhone 4 and would like to use Bento on it but, I've heard that that version requires the new IOS that Verizon can't use. I'm going to check into that further.

 

[nomad411]

My 2 cents

To me, bento is strictly a configureable GUI over the iOS Calendar and Address book. Used that way, you can add a bit of extra functionality based on that data, adding fields, etc..

So far, I can't convince myself to upgrade at $29. $10 maybe, it barely adds anything? Seems to be the Filemaker way.

 

[IceMacMac]

I am very, very interested in the next release of Filemaker Pro Developer specifically in one regard.

Bento seems merely one more example of Apple's consumer focus. Filemaker can be so much more. Bento is a toy, IMO.

How awesome if you could develop stand-alone iOS apps with FMPro 12...as you can do with the current version for Mac and Windows platforms.

 

[yojitani]

I'm so disappointed in this release, I've decided to just give up. My main beef is very small: you can't adjust font style. No bold, no italics, no underlining, no changing font color. If you check their forums, this has been a common request since Bento 1 and they still haven't done it. Basic Basic Basic functionality.

 

[thinktech]

Bento and phone numbers

I have purchased Bento 3 a while ago and not figured out how to use it to the level I desire. Can anyone please tell me with Bento 3 or 4 if there is a way to have multiple phone number or email fields in a library.

For Ex. I create a library for an individual client and drag over the phone list and input a work number. I then drag over another to try and add a mobile number. Once the new number is added the other field that had the work number automatically changes to the mobile number. Most of my clients have multiple phone and emails.

Is there a way to set this up using the field lists Bento provides?

Thank you!

 

[hchung]

I have purchased Bento 3 a while ago and not figured out how to use it to the level I desire. Can anyone please tell me with Bento 3 or 4 if there is a way to have multiple phone number or email fields in a library.

For Ex. I create a library for an individual client and drag over the phone list and input a work number. I then drag over another to try and add a mobile number. Once the new number is added the other field that had the work number automatically changes to the mobile number. Most of my clients have multiple phone and emails.

Is there a way to set this up using the field lists Bento provides?

Thank you!

It sounds like you want to keep track of multiple phone numbers per client, in a library of clients? (OMG, I sound like Clippy....)

Drag over the phone "list", and there should be a plus button. You should be able to enter a phone number, hit plus, enter another phone number, hit plus, enter another phone number.... etc.

This is different from a phone "field", which holds a single phone number FROM THE LIST. You can make many phone fields, but they all take values from the "phone list". The little triangle on the right should let you select from existing values in the list, I think.

 

[FatMac128]

Bento cant be backed up or emailed to PC

Yea, I know... I still use a pc... but planning to get a new iMac this summer... anyway... I got Bento for use on my iPhone mostly... til I found out there is NO WAY TO BACK THE FILES created. How scary is that? Yes, you can do a backup via iTunes (if you can locate the backup file in the backup folder (HA!)) but that's very cumbersome. I'm hoping that when I get my Mac and a copy on the Mac I can do normal backups. Until then, the program is useless for anyone that has important data they wish to backup. I am using it for inventory purposes... works great for that (no calculations needed) but stopped as soon as I read the silly replys from customer service that "at present Bento does not have the ability to be backed up locally or on a PC or via email". I am, however, excited that this gentleman is going to "foward my request to the programming department for evaluation"...... NOT!

 

[Danoc]

Can we do mailing lists with Bento for iPad?

 

[murrayE]

Does bento allow you to make your own databases or are you required to follow templates?

You can design your database in Bento: you decide what fields you want: what type they are (e.g., text, date, currency, choice from options you specify, email, URL, location, address, phone number checkbox, rating, duration, calculation), what to name them, and in what order they appear in the table columns and, independently through visual design, where on the form you want them to appear.

You can either start with a template from the free collection available and use as is or modify it, or create your own template from scratch.

I believe you can still download and try a time-limited version before deciding to buy.

Check the Bento web site about the connection between the mobile version and the Mac-based version. It says you can sync the iPhone and iMac versions' data with the Mac version's. But as I'm not running either mobile version, I cannot verify that myself.

Of course Bento is not a relational database; for that you need something more powerful and expensive.