Apr

25

Your Special Category – Bento Issues

Filed Under Bento Issues, Editorial 

This category will only have this one post – these instructions. It is for all the odds and ends that you, the Bento User, would like to have tied up. Leave a comment about anything. Ask for help, describe your wishes and problems in detail. Emphasis on Detail. I do reserve the right to summarize.

This does not replace the private Contact Form. But anything you want to share with other Bento Users should go here.

If an issue comes up that fits into another category I will create a post over there where we can expand on it even further.

Have fun and don’t hesitate to discuss any Bento issue you like.

Comments

29 Responses to “Your Special Category – Bento Issues”

  1. Robin Carson on April 25th, 2009 8:47 am

    Easily broken file links:

    I maintain a database of writers with whom I work. The database grows daily, and has now over a hundred records. In it, I store links to the several files associated with each writer–sometimes as many as six or seven.

    I discovered to my horror one day that somehow almost all of the links to those files had been broken. Little yellow warning signs appeared, and the links in the database were dead. I spent a long, scary time trying to figure out what had happened, and requests to the FileMaker help boards got no results.

    I finally found out that I had broken the links merely by changing the filenames of the folders containing the files. When I was done with a writer, I simply added a “+” after the folder’s name–and that was enough to break the link.

    FileMaker finally replied that the links in these Bento fields are not dynamic as they are in Finder, say. If you mess with the filename, the link is severed. It cost me hours to go back and restore the links. Bento uses the term “alias”, but these are not at all the aliases most Mac users are used to.

    Now, of course, I know enough not to change a filename–but not being able to do so is a royal pain in the backside. FileMaker knows of the problem, and says they’ve advised the designers of future releases.

    On the Filemaker/Bento discussion site, search “alias” to pull up all the related threads.

    The inability to change the names of folders, or, for that matter, the location of files, once those files are included in a Bento database is a serious flaw.

  2. SmockLady on April 27th, 2009 6:09 am

    Oh, wow! I really like your site here. I have found a good deal of helpful information. I am new to the macworld (and soooo happy I made the switch). I am also very new to Bento.

    I downloaded the trial and was quite sold on what it could do for me and how I could use it.

    I run a swap group for moms/children. On my sad old PC I used excel to keep up with the information. This worked, but I like Bento better. I need to find a good book on Bento so I can anything at hand I want at any hour I want and have that bit of instant gratification to do what I want and move on to the next thing. Could you suggest one?

    In the meantime, about the only thing I have not figured out is how to add a custom list (or how to edit the existing ones) to a new or existing form. I like using the Project Template for the swaps I organize.

  3. Florian on April 27th, 2009 11:10 am

    Hi Milady,

    I’m glad you like Bento. Keep in mind though that it is NOT a spreadsheet, so it can’t do everything Excel does, but it’s more fun and it looks better…

    The book I can recommend is actually called the Bento Book and it has a website:
    The Bento Book

    Tell me more what you mean by “custom list.” Bento has certain List Fields (like record lists or file lists) and a Choice Field where you choose from a list.

  4. SmockLady on April 27th, 2009 1:53 pm

    Thanks, Florian. I know it’s not a spreadsheet, I have just been keeping the info that way on my old pc. I will check into that book.

    Well, I’d like to be able to create a table/list for each swap. Here is how I do this; if there is a better way, please share it with me. I use the Project Template for the main group. I have each swap set up in the main page as separate projects. Then I have a separate collection set up for each swap’s member details and info.
    Within the individual swap collection I want to include each member who signed up for the swap, the children they signed up, and pertinent info to each member (address, emails, etc.) which I pull in from my address book – love this feature. What I want to add are two things:
    1. a short table/list that can list each child’s name and who they are matched to swap with during this particular swap.
    2. I’d love to bring in a table for basic calculations of the swap fees (who paid, how much, and the balance) – similar to the expense sheet I saw on this site. I’d like to know how to create a simple table like that and bring it into a new form.

    I realize that Bento is a database and not a spreadsheet, but when I saw it could do simple calculations I was hoping I could us it to pull in this basic info.

    I am headed over to Amazon now. :)

  5. Florian on April 27th, 2009 4:21 pm

    There are two different issues here.

    First of all, Bento can do everything you ask. You can set this up with a combination of related records lists and integrated calculation fields. You can display the summary row (for the balance) in a related records field of the same library (dragging the projects library onto itself). For the children you could also create a separate collection in Address Book and drag it onto the projects library (collection). You could use a choice field to display who swapped the kids. But all this would be displayed on forms.

    Now, if you would want it to be displayed in Table View it wouldn’t work like that, because Bento can not display any related records lists in Table View. So if you want a list or table for the whole swap you WOULD need a spreadsheet or design it two different ways.

  6. SmockLady on April 28th, 2009 8:53 am

    Thank you, Florian. I think I will work with your suggestions. I had not thought about making a separate group in the address book for the children. AND I do not care for all the detailed info to be in the Table, just the basics I already have set up. Thank you so much for the suggestions.

  7. Jens Rasmussen on August 11th, 2009 11:56 am

    Does anybody know how to flip an image taken by the iSight camera? The Help functions describes how to resize, but I want it not to appear as taken in a mirror.

  8. Florian on August 11th, 2009 12:43 pm

    Jens, my friend,

    yes, open the image in Preview, and in the Tools menu there is a flip command. Then save that picture.

  9. Jens Rasmussen on August 11th, 2009 1:11 pm

    Thanks,
    I feared it would be this cumbersome. The iSight should offer a ‘mirror’ feature, because in effect it creates a mirrored image vs. what a scanner does.
    I’m better off using Bento on the iPhone to take pics of the items. Which I recomment, btw.

  10. Jens Rasmussen on August 28th, 2009 12:54 am

    Wouldn’t it be great if Bento responded to Spotlight searches? I understand why it doesn’t, but I love the feature of typing a word, and in a pdf, you actually get the word highlighted. It might be possible some day to type ‘nintendo’ in Spotlight and then have all the usual results from pdf’s etc. PLUS a pointer into a specific library in Bento.

    Just dreaming… :-)

  11. chepakatov on January 3rd, 2010 7:38 am

    Hi,
    I’m just starting to use Bento3 and like what I see so far, but… not sure if I’m missing something, but I can’t seem to be able to create collections or smart collections within the iPhoto library, or within any of it’s subfolders. All the other libraries are ok, but as soon as I select iPhoto, the ‘+collection’ icon in the bottom left side of the viewer as well as all relevant menu selections become inactive.
    Is this standard behaviour for Bento? I see no reference to it in any of the help files or forums…

  12. Florian on January 3rd, 2010 10:21 pm

    Chepakatov,
    yes, this is standard behavior. The iPhoto library is read only. All collections are dictated by the iPhoto application. What you CAN do is add forms, fields, change the layouts and themes. You can also sort the records independently from iPhoto. This is an exception to all other Bento libraries. There IS a description of the iPhoto integration in the user’s guide (help menu).

  13. chepakatov on January 5th, 2010 3:44 am

    thanks heaps.
    and, yes, next time I’ll, umm… read the manual!

  14. noDTMF on January 10th, 2010 1:50 am

    Reply to Flipping photos in Bento

    My approach is to take the picture in Photo Booth with the Flip option set in Edit menu. ( I also hold the shift key to disable the flash, Then drag the photo from Photo Booth to the photo field in Bento.

  15. Rafi on March 8th, 2010 1:17 pm

    Hi. I wanted to use Bento to manage some Albums from iPhoto that I wanted to publish as MobileMe Galleries. The photos are of items I want to sell and I wanted to store the item price and details in the iPhoto ‘description’ box, which is displayed in the Gallery when the photo is clicked on and the ‘circle i’ is clicked (along with all the EXIF data). BUT the ‘description’ is not showing in Bento. (I have the Bento ‘Display iPhoto data in Bento’ selected in File > Address Book, iCal and iPhoto Setup…). Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks, Rafi

  16. Florian on March 8th, 2010 1:40 pm

    Rafi,
    bad news: the Bento iPhoto integration is read-only: you can not alter any iPhoto data/information in Bento. It’s totally different from the iCal and Address Book integration.
    All you can do in Bento is change the order of the Photos (for Bento). All the information you add in Bento through custom fields stays in Bento.
    The left side of the default Bento iPhoto template displays iPhoto information (the read-only status is shown by the italic font style).
    The main idea about the integration is the use of Related data fields with iPhoto as the source. I also use it to create highlight picture-stories of important events. But for that to work I have to create Albums in iPhoto first which then show up as collections in Bento.

  17. Rafi on March 8th, 2010 2:34 pm

    @Florian,
    thanks for the reply!
    I’ll have to think of something else 8-(

  18. Dave Ergo on March 24th, 2010 12:04 pm

    I fear that my Bento file is corrupted (my new Macbook pro hung several times when I was playing back a DVD lecture, and was taking notes directly into Bento). I have v3.0.3, 12327, and want to try to do a restore from my Time Machine backup… but was terrified to learn that I need to “restore from iCal and Address book, since that data is not kept in bento.

    So will I lose all of the emails that I’ve been tracking in this bento file?!? I have made no changes except for these notes from this lecture, which I’m glad to let go of if it means restoring my bento DB back to the way it was yesterday. Do I have to restore everything?

    Thanks,

    DAve

  19. Florian on March 24th, 2010 12:43 pm

    Dave,
    the file doesn’t have to be corrupted. If the DVD lecture is not running, does Bento start up OK? If it does everything might be fine. Do you have a Bento backup only?
    What do you mean by “losing emails?” You mean the emails after the last time machine backup? Emails are not kept in Bento either.
    And yes, to be sure you should make an archive of your Address Book and iCal on an external drive before you restore from a time machine backup.
    But I’m not a specialist in Time Machine…
    But give me more details.

  20. Dave Ergo on April 2nd, 2010 12:50 pm

    Hi, Florian:

    Okay, here’s what happened:

    I was watching a DVD lecture, with Bento open, and was taking notes on the lecture. At certain points, I needed to rewind a few seconds to catch what the instructor was saying. To do so, I held down the rewind key (F7). But what happened at one point is that I pushed it without holding it down, which is supposed to get you to the previous “chapter” on the DVD.

    When I did this, the machine hung. Couldn’t do force quit or anything.

    When I reopened bento, the record i was working on wasn’t there. I created another record (each record has its own identifying number, as I used the “Automatic Counter Field” for the record number. I tested this again, caused the hang again deliberately, and the second record also disappeared.

    This freaked me out a bit.

    I then rebooted the machine, opened bento again, but this time, the disappeared records reappeared, although the Automatic Counter Field had a value of “0″ (zero) on the original record that disappeared.

    Okay… long build up to my question. So, thinking that the bento file is corrupt, I’d like to restore from a backup. What I’m concerned about is that I’ve put in a lot of data that correlates to my address book — lot’s of contacts with extra notes, and with records of emails that I created by dragging from Apple Mail to a “Message LIst” field.

    My question is — will I lose the date in these related fields when I do the bento restore?

    The iCal, Mail, and Address databases are all fine. It’s just the Bento DB that I’d like to restore, to take care of any potential corruption problems.

    Thanks,

    Dave

  21. Florian on April 2nd, 2010 1:01 pm

    Dave,
    first of all, I don’t think that your Bento database file is corrupted. It’s just a little messed up in that one regard. If it’s corrupted, Bento either wouldn’t start at all, or other strange things would happen while you work in Bento. You can still restore from a back-up of your database file, which shouldn’t be a problem. Just back up your current database file first, so you can always go back to it.

  22. Dave Ergo on April 2nd, 2010 2:49 pm

    Okay… but if I *do* ever have to restore from a backup… can you tell me if I will lose data that correlates to my address book — such as contact data that is in bento only (especially the records of emails that I created by dragging from Apple Mail to a “Message LIst” field)? I’m assuming not, but just in case…

    Thanks for your help,

    Dave

  23. Florian on April 2nd, 2010 2:57 pm

    Dave,
    I’m assuming you are talking about restoring Bento data from a time machine backup. If that’s what you mean, I can’t give you an opinion, because I’ve never restored a time machine backup. You could search the Bento forums for “time machine.” Restoring simply from a backup you made from within Bento should always work. I’ve done it many times and don’t recall any problems.

  24. Dave Ergo on April 23rd, 2010 2:08 pm

    Hi, Florian:

    Again, apologies for the delayed response, and again, thanks for your help.

    I did mean to ask that if I ever have to restore from a BENTO backup (I have a separate disk for that, which I use in addition to Time Machine).

    So my question is: when I restore from a backup, will I lose ALL the extra data that I attached to a contact in my address book that I create within Bento — such as the records of emails sent to a contact that I created by dragging from Apple Mail to a “Message LIst” field). I’m assuming not, but just in case…

    Thanks for your help,

    Dave

  25. Florian on April 23rd, 2010 2:29 pm

    Dave,
    you shouldn’t lose anything except (logically) the changes (additions) you made after the last backup.
    The issues with iCal and Address Book only arise if you would use your backup on a DIFFERENT computer than the one you backed up from.
    Again, first back up your current database before you restore.
    I’ve restored from Bento backups many times (on the same disk) and never had any problems.

  26. Clayton on July 1st, 2010 7:14 pm

    I hope this is the appropriate place to post this.

    Just today I tried to open Bento and got the msg:” An unexpected error has occurred, Bento must shut down.” I press “OK” but Bento doesn’t close and it’s not frozen. I just get the same error when I try to open anything.

    So…I check out their FAQs and Forums and discover that quite a few people have the same problem. There are a number of suggestions (delete plist files, repair disk permissions) but none of them have helped. One suggestion, though, deleting a Bento file from the Application Support folder, did make a change.

    Now when I try to open, it starts searching for databases and hangs there (for hours) but no error msg.

    The most frustrating thing is that the Forums “New Message” button is grayed out so all I can do is search.

    Any ideas would be greatly appreciated and thank you for your work here.

    Clayton

  27. Florian on July 1st, 2010 8:43 pm

    Clayton,
    the forum would be the best place because of the actual tech support people. Don’t you want to sign up as a member? It’s the best way to be able to post.

    That Bento doesn’t shut down when it says it would is a bug that the developers never fixed, which is very unfortunate. But you should always shut down Bento from the File menu if that error message pops up, because it is still corrupt at that point.

    Starting with a fresh database file by deleting the bento.bentodb file works in most cases. Otherwise you could try to re-install the Bento app from the dmg file, after you delete the app first, together with the cache and the plist file.

    Good luck!

  28. Clayton on July 1st, 2010 8:53 pm

    I guess I’ll try trashing and reinstalling.

    I didn’t note that I am a registered member and I am logged on but I can’t post to forums.

    Weird.

    Thank you,
    Clayton

  29. Florian on July 1st, 2010 9:02 pm

    Clayton,
    I noticed in recent months that I had to log on every day again to get into the forums. It used to keep me logged in.
    Are you sure you’re logged in? Does it say something like “welcome, (your user name)” on the top of the screen?

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