Feb

3

Bento 3.0.3 Update Is A Hit!

Filed Under Bento News | 2 Comments 

Get your Bento 3.0.3 update as soon as you can, it includes a big improvement:

Now, all iCal events with an End Date on or after 1/1/2008 will never be removed by Bento. In case you didn’t know, Bento had a four year window for events, based on the current date. Any event which was older than 2 years was automatically deleted from Bento (not from iCal). In case you had added custom information, that data was instantly gone for good, even from back-ups!

Good job, Ryan!

Jan

24

Bento As A Motivational tool

Filed Under Bento Examples, Bento Tips | Leave a Comment 

[Submitted by Daikoma, German guest-contributor]

What about your New Year’s resolutions: stop smoking, going to the gym, taking a yoga course to get more relaxed? Are they still on track?

Finding motivation to keep healthy habits is often hard. In my opinion, Bento can help you in an easy way: create a simple Check Box  field in you iCal Events Library! And check it in Bento when you’re done with your task. It helps me personally a lot.

My tips for a sports calendar

  • Create a calendar in iCal called “sports.” Than create a simple Smart Collection for the “sports” calendar in Bento and add a check box called “task completed.” Move it into the first column in Table View.
  • Create dates when you want to go to the gym. If you’d like to add notes use the notes field or an Encrypted field, then the notes are not displayed in iCal (Bento 3).
  • Let iCal remind you one day in advance so you can get your gym bag ready the night before.
  • When you come home from the gym, check the check box in Bento. I recommend using Split View, then you can see your progress over the last couple of weeks. Feel satisfied and proud!
  • This also fits, for example, when you maybe paid for 20 massages or something else: you know your dates, when you were there, and when the package will end.
  • And if you are a young man living on your own, it maybe helps with the housekeeping ;-)

Why encrypted notes in a calendar?

My gym, for example, is health-oriented. It’s not so much for body-builders, but to motivate people who sit in the office all day to get some exercise. Or to help people with back pain. So there’s a doctor, a physiotherapist, and special instructors in my gym. That’s why you might want to keep your notes private.
They won’t appear in iCal, so your colleagues at work can’t see them when they look over your shoulder, and you can look at them at home in Bento for Mac or iPhone. This is the advantage of the iCal integration in Bento: you can add a personal touch & convenience to your calendar!

Jan

17

An Update About The Bento Database Manager / Digestive

Filed Under Editorial | Leave a Comment 

Some of you may be using my original Bento Database Manager that was released back in 2008 and some of you may also be aware that I have been working on a replacement to it for an overly long time. To explain what has been going on and what I’m doing to resolve it I’ve just posted an article over at my own blog and I’d like people to post any comments or thoughts about it there please.

Once Digestive has been launched there will be a further announcement on the BentoUsers site.

Simon

Jan

15

PDF Archive Option!

Filed Under Bento Tips | Leave a Comment 

We already talked about archiving your Bento data by creating sub-sets of the database file. Now I would like to give you another wonderful option:

In the Bento print dialog, you can create a PDF of your database. On the bottom left just select “open PDF in Preview” to check it out. You can then save the file from the Preview application. I’m using a 15″ MacBook Pro and I design most of my templates to fit on that screen without scrollbars, even leaving the Library pane visible. With that set-up you can fit two Records on one (letter, portrait) page. Looks great, and you can leaf through your Libraries like they are picture books!  This is a safe way of creating an extra back-up as well.

Feel free to play with all the print dialog settings. Of course, you have to create a PDF from each form. But in Preview, you can combine two or more PDFs into one, so you have many additional options to create a “custom” database view, including mixing different Form views. If you use Landscape orientation you can get a full screen view of a single record, especially if you create a custom page size in the print dialog.

Enjoy!

Jan

14

How To – Template Sharing Part One

Filed Under Bento Basics, Bento Tips | Leave a Comment 

Bento Template sharing is a wonderful way of learning and teaching the many possible uses of Bento. But it is not always easy to create a “clean” Template for sharing, especially when Address Book and iCal Libraries are involved. So I’ll share some tips today.
I haven’t played with Templates including Related Data from iPhoto. That will be an interesting addition for a future post.

Recently I received a Template for evaluation that included a Smart Collection from Address Book. The author chose to include Address Book as a Related Library. To do that you just have to click a check box in the “export Template” dialog. The result was that I got all of his 39 Address Book Collections in the bargain! That also means that 39 new groups were created in Mac Address Book!
As described in my article Unexpected Template Behavior Bento can’t make the distinction if you just have a Related Data field of one Address Book Collection in your Template. It includes all Forms and Collections!
Read more

Next Page →