Comments on: Review – Bento 3: A Big Upgrade

By: Florian

Florian — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 02:50:25 +0000

Hi Dave,
First of all, what you call a “file” is called a “library” in Bento. And a Collection is a sub-set of data within that Library.
So in your case you would want a “related data field.” Your contact names could be in the Address Book library, then you drag that library onto your “company name” library form. That creates the Related Data field. In any record of your Company Name library you can then display (add) the names you need. See the users guide (help menu) for more details or look for other articles on our site. In earlier versions of Bento the Related Data was called Related Records. Have fun!

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 02:22:09 +0000

I’m also a newbie to bento 3; having looked for a mac db to replace my Maximizer db i’ve been using on a pc.

What exactly is a “collection” in bento?

My general need, or want, is to create a “company name” file with multiple contacts within that company record. Is this where a “collection” could help?
Thx,
Dave

By: Florian

Florian — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:23:13 +0000

John,
maybe I’m misunderstanding something here, but it’s logical that if you leave the name fields blank (First Name, Last Name) that you get contacts without names…
So you could just copy the business (company) name into the Last name field, for example.

Or, in Table View (like a List View) you can re-arrange the fields (dragging the columns left or right) to have the Business field next to the name field, which will look better.
You could also create a Collection just for your business contacts. Then you can drag the Business field to replace the name field (drag it to the very left of the list display). You should even hide the name field from view (by clicking the little arrow beside it).

Tell me if this wasn’t clear enough (with all those terms used).

By: John

John — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:58:03 +0000

Hi Florian (and everyone else too)

(n.b. I’m translating some terms from French, so I hope this makes sense in the end.)

I apologise if you’ve already addressed this, but I didn’t see it in the previous posts. I’m just trying out Bento 3. In Contacts (or Address Book) I have quite a few business contacts with the name fields blank and only the ‘business’ name filled in. When I look at these contacts in Bento, they seem to be contacts without names. If I look at the detailed version of the contact, I can see the business name, but not in the Preview or Table view. Is there any way to add the ‘business name’ to the default ‘preview’ mode? Otherwise I will have a ton of contacts without names in my preview and grid views… which really sucks.

I hope that made sense…

Thanks in advance

By: Florian

Florian — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:17:34 +0000

Steve,
I agree with you, but posting a feature request on my site won’t help. Go to the Bento forums and post it there. They have a direct link to the developers.

By: Steve Cook

Steve Cook — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:59:45 +0000

FEATURE REQUEST —

I’m hoping there might be a way to use a hand barcode scanner with bento to update inventory. I realize it is easy with filemaker to setup a script that would put the inventory database in find mode and find an item based on a scan from the device and simply update something like the last date found.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do this with Bento on an iPad?

By: Florian

Florian — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:34:39 +0000

To all:

the iCal events restriction has been lifted with the Bento 3.0.3 update! See my new post.

By: Florian

Florian — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:09:51 +0000

Randy, I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for supporting this petition! My argument is simply that a database is for keeping data, not losing them!

It’s deadly for me too. In fact, I just complained about it in the Bento forums again. If you would be willing, please go there as well and add your name to that complaint by posting. Many people are complaining about it. The only explanation I got was that it might be a performance issue and that it might mess up existing customers to change it NOW. But I immediately suggested that you just have to put it in preferences if the user wants a limit or not.
So I surely hope that all the complaints will trigger a change soon.
The date Bento goes by is the End Date of an event. So the only workaround is to keep changing the End Date of Events to keep them in Bento.

By: Randy Penner

Randy Penner — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:47:40 +0000

Why is there still a 2 year limit on calendar events? What could possibly be the source of their resistance to changing this? Why not let users decide what, if any, limits there should be on the calendar events they wish to display? Is the Bento team open to changing this in the next major release? Is there a workaround solution in the meantime?

By: Florian

Florian — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:01:38 +0000

Because of the integration of the other apps I’m afraid it might never come. But only time will tell since they did figure out a way to sync with the iPhone…

By: Elliot

Elliot — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:18:38 +0000

ummm…Daylite seems to be a contact system that can share files with both iphone and a second computer. Any chance, in your opinion that this will be a feature that Bento will eventually have as I really like the look and simplicity of the system.

By: Florian

Florian — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:25:59 +0000

Bento 3 added database sharing over your local network, but Bento is designed as a single user database, so there is no syncing option, except with Bento for iPhone.
You can still copy your database file to a different computer, but your iCal and Address Book data is tied to one computer; so if you want that data as well, you also have to back-up the data from within iCal and Address Book separately. It was recently explained in the Bento Forums.

By: Florian

Florian — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:16:23 +0000

There is only limited phone support for Bento, mostly for set-up and troubleshooting. Advice about features costs money. The number is listed under Bento News on my site.
I don’t know for sure, but I would think the Genius bar would try to help with just about anything; having said that, Filemaker is still its own entity, just being owned by Apple; so Apple will not directly support their applications.

The best support option by far is the Bento Forums, the link is listed on our homepage here. These free forums are hosted by Bento tech support people.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:21:05 +0000

oops 1 more question…..I have an imac at home which is my main computer and also a laptop (macbook) Can I sync all my information from Bento on my imac to my Bento program on my laptop?

I am sure there are many people that have 2 computers that will find this answer helpful.

Thank you

By: Elliot

Elliot — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:36:01 +0000

Hi,

Thank you for that info…is there free support over the phone for Bento customers and do you happen to know if the “Genius Bar” at the Apple stores give support for Bento with an appointment, since the company is owned by Apple? I assume they would not consider this a 3rd party software….