Oct

6

Power Users Beware – Part Two

Filed Under Bento Bugs, Bento Tips, Editorial 

My problem is I’m too meticulous. I want things to run perfectly smoothly to be happy. That doesn’t mean I don’t like challenges, but when the challenge is met I want to relax again. But Bento 3 doesn’t let me relax, because it doesn’t keep its promises. Here are some of the most annoying examples:

Back to my daughter’s athletics: I created two Related Data fields side-by-side to compare results from 2008 with the ones from 2009. For this to be useful, both fields have to display the records in the same order.

Strange behavior #1: as long as I browse library records in sequence everything’s fine. But the moment I use split view and choose a record in the middle of the pack the display in the Related Data fields gets out of order AND they don’t match up anymore! Now it’s become useless for me.

Strange behavior #2: the same happens with the new Simple List field. The only good thing is I only need one field instead of two since I can enter the results from both years in the same field. So they match up at least, but still get out of order.

Strange behavior #3: Simple list field again.
You are supposed to be able to copy and paste data (says the user’s guide). If you paste spreadsheet data in Table View, all the data gets automatically distributed in rows and columns. You can’t paste something into an empty Simple List field at all. And if it has only a single cell it puts all the data in that one cell! So first you have to create enough cells so the pasted data will fit. That shouldn’t happen!

Strange behavior #4: Simple List fields again and again…
In general I like to avoid scroll bars in Bento, because they’re simply ugly. I try to design my templates so they fit on the screen, and the list fields so they contain all the data I need – all without scroll bars. It works most of the time, just takes a little extra work.
The Simple List field has two bad display problems: it shows a (redundant) empty row (for new data) even though it has a “+” icon for adding a row, and it displays an empty column (called “new column”). You can resize the empty column, making it a sliver, but whenever you restart Bento, it’s full size again! All the other List fields retain the width of their cells, NOT the Simple List field!

Strange behavior #5: Form View.
Recently I duplicated a form, because I wanted to make slight changes for displaying the final record of a collection. The duplicated form is supposed to be a separate entity. But in this case Bento 3 maintained some kind of a link between the forms. I made my changes to the duplicate and when I went back to the other form, it was messed up. SOME of the changes to the duplicate had also effected the original!

Enough for today. I will amend this article whenever I notice more of this unexpected behavior. Please also report similar problems right here.

As I commented before: Bento is just not doing its part when it comes to consistent or expected results – especially for power users.

Comments

2 Responses to “Power Users Beware – Part Two”

  1. Bento to the Max on October 7th, 2009 2:03 pm

    “Recently I duplicated a form, because I wanted to make slight changes for displaying the final record of a collection. The duplicated form is supposed to be a separate entity. But in this case Bento 3 maintained some kind of a link between the forms. I made my changes to the duplicate and when I went back to the other form, it was messed up. SOME of the changes to the duplicate had also effected the original!”

    This is NOT a new Bento 3 bug. This bug has been around since version 1 and I reported it to FileMaker way back then on the Bento forum.

    It is perhaps not a bug, just an anomaly. What you cannot do, when you want to duplicate a form, is to duplicate a form with OBJECTS or TEXT BOXES. Because if you duplicate such a form, the objects and text boxes on the forms are not true copies, they are SHARED. You can never change any of those objects or text boxes, because if you do, it will change the ones in the other form.

    This does not happen with fields. You can move and delete fields freely and it doesn’t affect the other form. But if there is a common OBJECT or TEXT BOX, change one and the other will be changed, delete one and the other will be deleted.

    It might confuse you at first if you had already changed around a lot of the fields on one form, that when you finally delete a “shared” object, it will ripple the formatting of the fields of that other form to where it might not be easy to see what the heck happened. But it is simply this:
    – NEVER DUPLICATE A FORM THAT ALREADY HAS ANY OBJECTS OR TEXT BOXES IN THEM
    however, it is okay to:
    – DUPLICATE FORMS PRIOR TO PLACING ANY OBJECTS OR TEXT BOXES IN THEM and you won’t risk affecting either form later.

  2. Florian on October 7th, 2009 2:19 pm

    Thanks Max (for short),
    this is a wonderful tip! Extremely useful, and I understand exactly what you are saying. It’s still very annoying, especially in my case. I only decided to duplicate the form when it already contained several objects and text boxes.
    I didn’t mean to convey that it was a Bento 3 bug specifically, but I definitely call it a BUG, because it really shouldn’t be that way!! And it goes beautifully with Bento’s duplication bug which is a problem everywhere. Please keep helping us out whenever you feel like it!

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