Feb

27

Related Records List Update – Part One

Filed Under Tutorials | 2 Comments

I’m starting another weekly series. The premise: almost a year ago, Simon wrote a great tutorial about an advanced feature of Bento: the Related Records List Fields.
If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend you do. I would like to summarize and clarify some things and also update the usage of the fields with the added features in Bento 2.

First let’s review the basics: if you simply create a one-way link between two Libraries, you HAVE to add any related records to the list by hand. Nothing will be filled in automatically through any other action you take. Bento 2 did not change that functionality.
In addition, another question just came up: what if I create a self-referencing relationship (e.g. dragging Address Book onto itself)? Technically, we’re dealing with only a single library, so you still have to add records manually to the Related Records List Field.

You can create Related Records List Fields in Libraries AND Collections. Be careful about using Smart Collections as related records source, they can trick you. Besides limited functionality (you can’t add new records manually to the source), records can also disappear if you change the criteria. We’ll talk more about Smart Collections when we’ll discuss relational loops.

Update: Simon reminded me that Bento 1 did not even allow Smart Collections as sources for a Reletated Records List Field. So that is another Bento 2 enhancement.

Feb

25

Customizing Themes – Part One

Filed Under Tutorials | 1 Comment

I saw many complaints in the Bento forum about the built-in themes. Our friend Patrick created the first custom themes called Neutral. BentoUsers featured them prominently (see Themes category). Then I offered my own Theme Creation service. No one was really interested – I know that was because people hate to take advantage of me…

So here is a tutorial for the do-it-yourselfer so no one has to ask anyone for help anymore. Works only in Bento 2 !

Warning: this is not for the faint-hearted because it’s a (legal) hack. For that reason please only proceed at your own risk.

After the whole tutorial has been published I might make it available as a PDF.

Read more

Feb

18

My Uses For Bento 2

Filed Under Bento Tips, Editorial | 4 Comments

Hi, Hello, Guten Tag,

this is your new management talking. I’m excited to publish my first complete post! With my headline I wanted to suggest that I will only support Bento 2.03, the newest version as of this writing. Besides that I’m running it myself, I feel that serious users will upgrade no matter what. The simple reason for upgrading is that you don’t only get new features but especially bug fixes. That doesn’t mean that I don’t understand or respect why people DON’T upgrade. I was mad too that I missed out on the Black Friday special…

Now to give you some ideas, here is an excerpt of my Bento libraries and collections:

(Collections under iCal Events:)

  • CC meets (of my daughter)
  • Track meets
  • Nordic Ski races

(New Libraries:)

  • German Legal (dictionaries for my Interpreter job, many special collections)
  • The Musical Director (compilations of 20 years of conducting; fancy forms)
  • Sheet Music (…that I own)
  • Home Improvements
  • Home Inventory
  • Theme font list (a list with samples of all fonts used in Bento themes)

I’m also using Address Book.

I would love to get your comments like your own special uses of Bento 2.

Florian

Feb

17

BentoUsers is Under New Management

Filed Under Site Notes | 2 Comments

The last few weeks and months have been very hectic for me and if I am honest I simply don’t have the time to maintain BentoUsers properly. Preferring not to close the site I was fortunate enough that several very kind people responded to my request to find someone to hand the site on to and one of those people was Florian Keller. Florian is very active in the official Bento forums under the moniker ’saintflo’ and I am sure that he will do a fantastic job.

I have greatly enjoyed running the site for the last year and I have met some fantastic people as a result of it. It’s been a wonderful experience and I’m only sorry that my other projects have taken over my life leading to BentoUsers being slightly neglected.

Simon