Let me repeat the most recent issue:
Before you migrate from Mobile Me to iCloud or otherwise turn on on iCloud,
do this:
Make sure you have Bento 4.06
Launch it.
Quit Bento.

After that, you should be ready to surf the new Clouds.

Since Mobile Me will be available until June 30, 2012, I personally am not in a hurry to get OSX Lion and iCloud. But since there are very few issues which have been reported in the Bento forums, I have to assume that Bento is generally ready for the transition. That doesn’t mean that the problems reported here on BentoUsers are not real. But they are not the norm, but rather horrible bad luck.
Still, let’s all keep our eyes and ears open…

Today I figured out how my friend created a Column Divider image!

Here is the solution:
When you edit a theme to customize it (see my tutorial on theme creation/customizing), the plist file contains this line that I had never even noticed:
<key>columnImageScaled<⁄key>
<⁄true>
… which is very similar to this line:
<key>separatorImageScaled<⁄key>
<⁄true>
… which refers to the image of the horizontal separator you can add on a form. That image is called Separator.tif. That told me everything I needed to know…

So this is what I did to create an image for the otherwise invisible column divider, and it worked like a charm:
I opened the Separator.tif image in Preview and simply rotated it to make it vertical. Then I saved it under the name Column.tif. That was it!

After re-starting Bento the column divider became visible for that theme – like Magic!

Have fun!

Recently I learned about a somewhat hidden (and rarely talked about) feature in the iCal application: in the general preferences just click the checkbox entitled:
“Add a default alarm to all new events…” and specify other detailed options. Once you’ve done that, you never have to open iCal again. Whenever you create a new iCal event from within Bento, an alarm will be added automatically and transparently.

This takes care of one of the many strange and basic shortcomings of Bento.

Have fun!

Most important tip:
don’t just import a Template into your main (maybe only) database file!
For this purpose I keep a “fresh” Bento 3 database file on hand, in my Bento back-up folder. Then I save (back up) my current data and revert to the fresh database. Then I import the Template. Since I’m not using any Address Book Collections, I don’t have to worry about them. If you are using Collections (Groups), then make a list of them first, so you can check which new ones are added during import.

If you don’t have a fresh Bento database file, here is how to create one:
back up your current database file, quit Bento. Find the main database file at: user/library/application support/bento. Delete the bento.bentodb file. Re-start Bento; a fresh database file is automatically created. Now back up that file and call it “Freshbento3Data” or something similar. Now you can revert to a fresh database file any time you need to.

After you import a Template into a fresh Bento database file, check for strange Collections in Address Book and iCal. After you make sure which ones might be used by the Template, delete the stray Collections. Same goes for Forms.
In addition, you might get all Address Book/iCal Fields from the creator’s Bento. It’s too much work to deal with that issue in detail, just don’t be surprised if you run into some strange Field names once in a while…

Now you can re-export the cleaner Template and import it into your main database or any sub-set you’re using.

Happy templating…

What about your New Year’s resolutions: stop smoking, going to the gym, taking a yoga course to get more relaxed? Are they still on track?

Finding motivation to keep healthy habits is often hard. In my opinion, Bento can help you in an easy way: create a simple Check Box  field in you iCal Events Library! And check it in Bento when you’re done with your task. It helps me personally a lot.

My tips for a sports calendar

• Create a calendar in iCal called “sports.” Than create a simple Smart Collection for the “sports” calendar in Bento and add a check box called “task completed.” Move it into the first column in Table View.
• Create dates when you want to go to the gym. If you’d like to add notes use the notes field or an Encrypted field, then the notes are not displayed in iCal (Bento 3).
• Let iCal remind you one day in advance so you can get your gym bag ready the night before.
• When you come home from the gym, check the check box in Bento. I recommend using Split View, then you can see your progress over the last couple of weeks. Feel satisfied and proud!
• This also fits, for example, when you maybe paid for 20 massages or something else: you know your dates, when you were there, and when the package will end.
• And if you are a young man living on your own, it maybe helps with the housekeeping

Why encrypted notes in a calendar?

My gym, for example, is health-oriented. It’s not so much for body-builders, but to motivate people who sit in the office all day to get some exercise. Or to help people with back pain. So there’s a doctor, a physiotherapist, and special instructors in my gym. That’s why you might want to keep your notes private.
They won’t appear in iCal, so your colleagues at work can’t see them when they look over your shoulder, and you can look at them at home in Bento for Mac or iPhone. This is the advantage of the iCal integration in Bento: you can add a personal touch & convenience to your calendar!

In the Bento print dialog, you can create a PDF of your database. On the bottom left just select “open PDF in Preview” to check it out. You can then save the file from the Preview application. I’m using a 15″ MacBook Pro and I design most of my templates to fit on that screen without scrollbars, even leaving the Library pane visible. With that set-up you can fit two Records on one (letter, portrait) page. Looks great, and you can leaf through your Libraries like they are picture books!  This is a safe way of creating an extra back-up as well.

Feel free to play with all the print dialog settings. Of course, you have to create a PDF from each form. But in Preview, you can combine two or more PDFs into one, so you have many additional options to create a “custom” database view, including mixing different Form views. If you use Landscape orientation you can get a full screen view of a single record, especially if you create a custom page size in the print dialog.

Enjoy!

Recently I received a Template for evaluation that included a Smart Collection from Address Book. The author chose to include Address Book as a Related Library. To do that you just have to click a check box in the “export Template” dialog. The result was that I got all of his 39 Address Book Collections in the bargain! That also means that 39 new groups were created in Mac Address Book!
As described in my article Unexpected Template Behavior Bento can’t make the distinction if you just have a Related Data field of one Address Book Collection in your Template. It includes all Forms and Collections!

Since I know now for a fact that the Bento team won’t fix this bug for the time being, here are some tips and workarounds:
Whenever you can, don’t include Address Book or iCal Libraries in your Template, so you don’t run into this problem at all. In other words, don’t check anything in the “include these related libraries” box (template export dialog). Your Related Data Fields will still be there, the user of the Template just has to create the iCal/Address Book Collections himself. Simply include a Form called “Template Notes” or similar, where you explain what the user has to do to make the Template complete, for example the exact criteria for a Smart Collection. While you’re at it, include a description and other usage notes on that Form, like we do here at our download pages at BentoUsers. Many users will appreciate that, especially the novices who rely on downloading Templates.

There are some exceptions. If your (Related Data-) Address Book Collection uses custom Fields and/or a special custom Form, you should include Address Book as a Related Library. To make it easy for the user who downloads such a template, here are some tips to “clean” it up before exporting it:

When you’re done with your Template, make a backup of your Bento data. If you have several unrelated Address Book Collections (like many people), also make an archive of your contact file in Mac Address Book.
Now you can start cleaning: delete all Mac Address Book groups that are not part of your Bento Template (it’s easier to do this in Mac Address Book because you can delete the whole batch at once). Next delete all Forms from Bento Address Book that are not relevant to your Template, from the main Library and the Collection(s). Note that every Library and Collection has to have at least one Form. So just leave any one Form in the main Library. You could even name it “delete me.”

Now your Template is ready for export! All the user (importer) has to do is delete one Form from his main Address Book library (the “delete me” Form). Finally, you can restore your Mac Address Book and your Bento data from the archive/backup you made earlier.

Another case I ran into myself a few times is the desire to export the Template of a single iCal Collection. An example is the Cross Country Template of my daughter’s running races. Since Bento doesn’t allow you to export a single Collection, you have to do more cleaning up first. It’s slightly simpler because Bento’s iCal Collections don’t affect the Mac iCal application. So all you have to do is backing up your Bento data and then delete all other Collections and irrelevant Forms. Again you have to leave one Form in the main iCal Library.

There you are! Next month we’ll talk a little bit about importing “dirty” templates.

More bad news today…

Be careful when downloading templates from the Bento Template Exchange at Filemaker. Apparently, they accept most templates without checking them out first. Many are designed very poorly, some are even corrupt. Also, inexperienced users in the forums complain, because they don’t even know how to use the templates without instructions.

We don’t have that many templates here on our site, but our quality control and service is included:
I will not publish a template without testing it first and improving it, if necessary.
Secondly, every template will be described as to its features and usage and will include original-size screen shots.
Finally, you can always leave comments, especially useful for any open questions.

Tip: remember, a template is only a starting point. Your exact personal needs might be different. So read the user’s guide to help you modifying a template.

Sometimes I like to insert a spacer on the very left of a form so the fields don’t get so close to the edge. But the minimum width of a spacer isn’t very small. There is a different way that uses a little less space:

Add any field to an empty form. Then insert a column divider. Next add any field to the right of the new divider. Now remove the first field you added initially. Voila! The column divider moved to the left edge of the form, acting as a spacer which is narrower than a real Bento spacer.

I tried it out and it displayed some strange behavior. Luckily, I had copied the database file I tested the feature with. Bento moved the file (removing it from my back-up folder where it resided). Since I didn’t specify that file as the default database, it later automatically reverted to the previous file, and the other file was gone, I couldn’t find it anywhere! I had to move the copy back into its old location by hand. Sounds a bit dangerous and complicated, right?

I recommend to use this hidden feature with big caution! So far, the documentation never mentioned the possible use of more than one database file, even though many users are using them, including myself. This would be another reason for the release of an updated version of Bento 3 that includes a new users guide! The users guide would need to include instructions on how to create additional database files.

Here’s the step by step:

1. Back up your current (complete) database file
2. Create your sub-set of Libraries/Collections by deleting unwanted data
3. Quit Bento and re-start which now automatically creates the finished sub-set
4. Now, back up this new database file, naming it anything you want which creates the archive
5. In Bento, revert to the back-up of your main database file
6. Repeat those steps to create more sub-sets

Possibly you might also want to reduce the size of your main database file by deleting the data you saved in your sub-sets.

Note: in my case, my data sub-set consists of iCal Collections. Since Bento has a two-year limit for displaying iCal events, I also saved the Library Records separately as a .csv file. I hope that will work to trick Bento’s iCal limitation. The future will tell. Any comments appreciated!

For more details, see the Filemaker Contact page.

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.

I read all versions of the Bento user’s guide from cover to cover, I was an award winning beta tester for Bento 3, I am using Bento for countless ongoing and archival projects, both personal and business. I’ve learned to use most features to the extreme and to my advantage to create highly useful, informative, and visually pleasing Bento Libraries.
By now, I’m also experienced in finding workarounds for Bento’s shortcomings. But most importantly, I’m expecting Bento to cooperate. In other words, I expect a stable environment AND consistency: the advertised features have to work as described and should yield predictable results. And they really don’t in many cases. But that will be the subject of another comprehensive (power user’s) post.

Back to my problem over the weekend. I visited my daughter at college and gave her a copy of Bento 3. Then I wanted to give her the elaborate Library Collections I had compiled from her athletic prowess in High School. Databases of races and events from three sports: Cross Country Running, Nordic Skiing, and Track. Since Bento supposedly can export & import templates and data files, it should be a straight forward process, especially for a power user…
But first there is that huge (template) export/import bug that nobody but me seems to care about (see my previous report). The bug only involves the iCal and Address Book Libraries and their Collections. Unfortunately, my project ONLY consisted of iCal Events Collections. But I know exactly how to edit the exported Collection templates to squash the bug and make them usable on another computer. It just takes a lot of time. I start with a virgin database file, import the template to delete erroneously duplicated forms, collections and fields (I even forgot that last step this time). And since you can’t import any data into Smart Collections I also had to “convert” them to regular Collections before exporting the now “clean” template again. And this was the point where all the crashes started:

Bento 3 has a potentially great feature: you can now copy Forms within the same Library and its Collections. Now I am given a TOOL to convert a Smart Collection into a regular one, so I can import my data. All I have to do is copy all the forms from the Smart Collection into a regular Collection and then delete the Smart Collection before exporting the template.
After copying several forms successfully, Bento crashed all of a sudden when I ctrl-clicked a form to copy it! And after the crash the database file became so corrupt that Bento would not restart! So I had to ditch the database file and had to start over with a fresh one. And that happened over and over again, now triggered by various actions. I saved the template a few times anticipating the crashes but I could never finish it before Bento crashed again.
Finally, I figured out that I could keep editing the template even after Bento crashed – because the application didn’t actually quit, even though the pop-up window said so…

But the final template file is not working perfectly – it displays some strange behavior, sometimes random, sometimes consistently – both are very annoying. At least just using the template and editing its data doesn’t trigger crashes… and until the Bento team fixes all the bugs, I can say I found another workaround I can live with, even though it doesn’t make me happy.

Bottom line: the new feature of copying forms is not stable! It was a last minute addition and should have been tested much more thoroughly. Make sure you work with a copy of your database file before you use it! It was clearly the main trigger of the crashes, together with the incomplete and misleading (template-) import/export function (I really call it a bug too). This function has to be totally re-designed, but at this point I’ve given up hope…

My clear verdict: even the newest version of Bento does not even come close to satisfy the high standards of a power user like me. And that has nothing to do with a lack of features. IMHO, it just has sloppy implementations of even the most basic features which I wlll explain in detail in my next post.

And I would rather wait longer for an upgraded version if it would mean that all features were tested more thoroughly before its release.

Every Related Data field now includes a Notes section which only shows up once you drag it into view. Then it might look like this:

When you create a Related Data field, the Notes section is hidden. You have to hover the mouse over the right edge of the field until an arrow appears (pointing to the left). Then drag to the left – voila. You can add as many columns as you wish and rename the title. The data is stored with your active library, not with the source library of the related data.

Have fun finding a good use for this hidden gem… it can at least personalize your (general) related data.