Mar

19

Wanted: Enthusiastic Contributors

Filed Under Bento Basics, Bento Examples, Bento Tips, Editorial, Site Notes, Tutorials | 13 Comments

Hey, at his very moment I’m running BentoUsers all by my own lonely self. I know, I know, it seems I have this huge supporting staff behind the scenes. But that’s just a rumor. All I have is some people I can ask questions if I’m totally desperate. But I’m the only one publishing things and coming up with the ideas. That has to change! After all, the site’s main motto is:
Written By Bento Users For Bento Users. I clearly detect the plural form here and it wouldn’t sound very good to change it to the singular form…

I’m calling out to any other user, starting with my friends Dan and Barb, you know yourselves, how wonderful you are! I do appreciate the templates users have contributed. Keep them coming! But now I’m also looking for (regular?!) contributors. It could be a weekly column, the occasional tip or trick, special usage ideas, workarounds… pretty much anything. Even just someone who scours through the posts and leaves some comments on a regular basis. Point out the errors of my ways, make suggestions!

I hope I gave you some starting thoughts how to help out. Come out of the woodworks, get famous and help change the (Bento) world!

Thanks for listening…

Yours Truly, Lonesome Florian.

Mar

11

Bento Internet Event

Filed Under Bento Basics, Editorial | 1 Comment

Filemaker, Inc is hosting an online event for Bento users and anyone who wants to get to know Bento. Here is the announcement:

Whether you’re new to Mac or a database expert, join us for an overview of the newest version of the wildly popular personal database from FileMaker, Bento 2.

If you’re using Address Book and iCal to manage your contacts and calendar, see how Bento can bring them together. Learn how to make the most of the lists you’re storing in spreadsheets like Excel and Numbers. Or, if you’re ready to start organizing your busy life starting from scratch, we’ll show you how Bento can you help do it – the easy way!

Register today as space is limited.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009; 8:00-9:00 a.m. Pacific, 11:00-noon Eastern

Tuesday, March 24, 2009; 11:00-noon Pacific, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Eastern

Where: On your computer over the Internet

HOW TO REGISTER
When you come to the registration page, click the “Register” link next to “Event Status” or at the bottom of your screen and enter your contact information. After your registration is accepted, you will be sent an email with the necessary event participation information, which will take place over your computer.

Oct

19

Backup QuickPick for Bento

Filed Under Bento Basics | 5 Comments

In response to a comment in the Multiple Library Collections post I’m pleased to say that I’ve created a QuickPick for Apple’s Backup application which will backup any bentodb files you have in your user’s Library/Application Support/Bento folder as well as the Bento preferences file.

To use, simply download the QuickPick, unzip the file and then place the unzipped file into either the /Library/Application Support/Backup/QuickPicks/ folder or the ~/Library/Application Support/Backup/QuickPicks/ folder.

The file can be downloaded from here.

Apr

30

An Introduction to Databases

Filed Under Bento Basics | 11 Comments

Bento is essentially a flat-file database application although it does contain some basic relational functionality despite great efforts having been made to hiding the inner complexities from the user.

If the above sentence has left you scratching your head then you need to read this article because it will explain what a database is, what a flat-file database is and what relational functionality is.
Read more

Apr

29

Fields, Records, Tables & Forms

Filed Under Bento Basics | 2 Comments

If you are new to databases then the whole area of fields, records, tables and forms in Bento Libraries may be somewhat confusing, especially understanding how forms relate to fields and records. The short video, below, will hopefully help to visually explain this. Read more

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