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!

Again, go back to the Resources folder in the package content of our test theme Starfield Casual in the sample ThemePack file. There you’ll find the picture file Background.png. That file makes up the main background of the theme. That particular picture is a customized photo I used myself as a test. You just have to replace that Background picture with your logo picture (in the theme you want to customize). But that’s not all…

You need to know that Bento tiles the background picture – similar to the tiling option for the computer desktop wallpaper. So if you just want one logo displayed (like a letterhead) then, first of all, you have to make your picture big enough to fill the whole Bento screen so it can’t be tiled. You could place your logo at the left top, for example, and then expand the rest of your picture background to the right and down.

Finally, to make your logo look as close as possible to the original picture, several background parameters in the .plist file have to be adjusted, which is a bit tricky. The test file (Starfield Casual) demonstrates the following changes.

First you should normally turn off the transparency of the title banner. If you don’t, your background picture continues as a mirror image in the title banner, as used in the Swimming Pool theme for effect, and in some other themes as well.
Find the <key> named bannerFill. The <string> below gradientColorBottom and gradientColorTop has four parameters. Change the fourth parameter of each to “1.” The first three make up the actual color.

Next I would change the <real> parameter of the first two keys in the .plist file: backGroundBrightness to “-0” and backGroundContrast to “1.” To be safe you could also change backgroundHueAngle (0) and backgroundSaturation (1).
Finally change backgroundTileScale to “1” to make sure your logo doesn’t look skewed.

That’s it. And please, give me feedback, ask questions. Have fun with your new logo!

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.

The Media Field border is simply a collection of several little picture files. Go to our test themePack file you downloaded in part one of this tutorial. Then open the Resources folder of the Starfield Casual Bundle, scroll down and you’ll find all those .tif files starting with PictureFrame. Above the files I created a folder called Pics. Do the same in your own themePack file(s). That folder is just for storage.
To remove the Media Field border just drag all those PictureFrame files into your new Pics folder. If you don’t like the result, you can always move them back out into the open.

Voila, you have a free-floating-looking Media Field! Don’t be alarmed: some themes still display a border as long as the Media Field is empty, but as soon as you add a media file the border disappears.
Off course, you can also add your own border instead, by creating your own PictureFrame pics.

Note: I’ll be traveling the world the next three weeks, so my posts will slow down. Whenever I have a chance to log on, I’ll still check for comments.

Relational Loops are a wonderful thing. Example: you drag the Address Book Library onto the Projects Library, and then the Projects onto the Address Book. Now you create a new record for a project. In that record you choose any number of addresses from the Address Book to be displayed in the Related Records List Field.
Let’s say you added Mr. Smith. Now go to the Address Book and search for Mr. Smith: in his record you’ll find the new project listed automatically in the Related Records List Field! Very handy.
And it works the same the other way around: if you decide later that Mr. Brown should also be assigned to the same project, go to Mr. Browns Address Book record and add the project to the Related Records List Field. Now his name is automatically added to the right record in the Projects library.

Tip: you can rename any Related Records List Field. By default it gets the name of the source Library, but in the above example you might rename “Address Book” to “Team Members.” Renaming the Field has no effect on the name of the actual source Library.

I hope this update cleared up most questions. For more screen shots see the original tutorial. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment with additional questions.

• You want to use your favorite fonts
• You like the theme, but not the font
• You want to use different sizes or variants

Of course you can only use fonts that are installed on your system. To check out all your fonts open the Fontbook application (in the application folder). In there you can look at samples of all fonts in any size – you can even type in custom text:

Now it’s time for action!

Open the .plist file of your theme bundle (where you changed the custom folder) and look for <key>fieldFont_larger</key>. The other sizes follow below it: largest, normal, smaller, smallest.
Now simply replace the <string> under <key>fontName</key> with the name of your custom font. Make sure you start it with a Capital letter.

Important note: for many themes Bento uses a second font for the two smallest sizes for better legibility. You should normally leave those alone except for their size.

A neat option is that you can even choose any available variant you find in Fontbook for your font, even combinations that are listed. You usually don’t have to add Regular, but you can.
To use a variant type Helvetica-BoldOblique, for example. You have to eliminate all spaces (also between a two-word font) and use a dash between the font and the variant. Capitalize both words in a two-word font and/or variant.

Finally, you should change the font in the title banner to match your field font. Find the <key>bannerFontFormView</key> near the top of the .plist file and change the font name as well. Don’t change the  <key>bannerFontTableView</key> – it can mess things up.

That’s it for the simplest theme customization! But read on…

For some strange reason, the Bento programmers are very inconsistent with their font sizes. Every field font comes in 5 sizes, and sometimes the difference between size 2 and size 3 is huge.
You can change the font sizes by changing the number between the <real> tags under <key>fontSize</key>. But don’t go crazy – you might get unexpected results. It looks nice, for example, when the banner font is the biggest. I always set it one point higher than the largest field font. I also usually start by raising the two smallest sizes by 1 or 2 points each. It’s also nice sometimes to push the largest size into the low 30s, depending on the font: that’s where Fontbook comes in for testing the look.

Finally it really improves readability to change the font and size of the list field font (for file lists, related records a.s.o.). It’s listed under <key>linkTableFont</key> and I’m using Optima-Regular as a font and I’m raising the font size one point to 13.

Now save the .plist file with all the changes.
Have Bento open. Go to the finder and find your themePack file. Now just double-click it and your custom theme should be automatically installed. You should get a short pop-up message on screen, and the theme chooser might open. If not, open it and look for your custom folder. Then you can apply your theme!

Have fun and good luck… … to be continued…

Next I want to explain the two extra buttons that Bento 2 added to the bottom of the Related Records List Field. On the left side one button was added with a little arrow in it. When you select a record and click that button, Bento takes you to the actual record (form view) in the source Library. You can stay there as long as you wish, browsing and editing, but you can return to the Library (and the exact record) where you came from by clicking on the extra arrow button that appears on top of the window next to the browse arrows. Try it out, it’s very convenient and helpful.

The other new button was added to the right bottom, next to the summary row button. When you click it, the fields display (below the Bento Library pane) flips to display only the fields of the source Library. Now you can check and uncheck fields you want or don’t want displayed in the Related Records List Field. Another very useful new feature.

Next week, in the last installment of this update, we’ll discuss relational loops.

First, duplicate the themPack file we looked at last week, so we always have access to our test file. You can rename the duplicate to anything you want – its name has nothing to do with its functionality, so you can rename it again later.

I want to stress two things before we continue. I had added a special note to last week’s article, so in case you missed it: all this only works in Bento 2.
Secondly, this hack does not alter the Bento program file in any way, just individual theme bundles, and you should always work with duplicates, so not to change the original themes.

Following the instructions in last week’s article, open the test themePack file, navigate through the first pop-up window to the folder with the Starfield Casual.bundle file and leave that window open.
Now you have to choose the theme you want to alter or play with for now. If you haven’t decided on a theme, go to Bento, and using the Theme Chooser, find a theme where you always hated the fonts… Bento 2’s Theme Chooser is nice, for the fact that you can try different themes without leaving the chooser.

Sorry, all the theme bundle files are totally hidden again. In the finder, go to Applications/Bento. I’m not providing screenshots here, because it’s the same procedure as last week:
Select the Bento application, ctrl-click it and choose Show Package Contents. In the pop-up window open the Resources folder, scroll down to the Themes folder and open it: voila, you tediously found the Bento themes! Scroll to the theme you want to alter. Duplicate the bundle file and drag the duplicate to the themePack window into the folder with the Starfield Casual bundle.
That previous procedure is the the same for any theme you want to alter. To make the themePack truly your own, drag the Starfield Casual bundle into the trash. Now you’re ready to create your own custom theme!

One first editing chore we can tackle now. The Bento Theme Chooser allows you to create custom folders for your themes. Open your newly created Theme bundle in the themePack file to get to the famed .plist file we talked about at the end of last week’s article. Open the file with TextEdit.

Now you have to look closely, because the file has many parameters. Find the <key> called bundleName. The <string> below it should read “built-in.” Change that name to  a name you want your first theme folder to have, like “Test” or “My Themes 1.” You can have any number of custom theme-folders, so keep that in mind when you name it.
Make the same name change to the <string> beneath the next <key> named categories.
Now save the .plist file from TextEdit (it should be saved as a plain text file) and you’re set for next week’s font adventure!

First let’s review the basics: if you simply create a one-way link between two Libraries, you HAVE to add any related records to the list by hand. Nothing will be filled in automatically through any other action you take. Bento 2 did not change that functionality.
In addition, another question just came up: what if I create a self-referencing relationship (e.g. dragging Address Book onto itself)? Technically, we’re dealing with only a single library, so you still have to add records manually to the Related Records List Field.

You can create Related Records List Fields in Libraries AND Collections. Be careful about using Smart Collections as related records source, they can trick you. Besides limited functionality (you can’t add new records manually to the source), records can also disappear if you change the criteria. We’ll talk more about Smart Collections when we’ll discuss relational loops.

Update: Simon reminded me that Bento 1 did not even allow Smart Collections as sources for a Reletated Records List Field. So that is another Bento 2 enhancement.

So here is a tutorial for the do-it-yourselfer so no one has to ask anyone for help anymore. Works only in Bento 2 !

Warning: this is not for the faint-hearted because it’s a (legal) hack. For that reason please only proceed at your own risk.

After the whole tutorial has been published I might make it available as a PDF.

First, download this Sample ThemePack zip file. It should become the template file for any new theme(s) you create. This sample file contains one theme, but one ThemePack file can contain any number of themes.

After it’s downloaded, navigate to you Downloads folder and double-click the zip file. Your unzipped file should look like this:

I always recommend to keep the zip file so you can start over when something goes wrong.
Select the ThemePack file and then ctrl-click it:

Choose Show Package Contents. A new finder window opens.

Open the Contents and then the Resources folder:

Starfield Casual is the sample customized theme. Select it and repeat the previous steps (ctrl-click – Show Package C., …) and you should see this window:

This is the window we’ll always come back to.

To whet your appetite for Part Two next week, open the Attributes.plist file with TextEdit and look around…

Please use the Comments to ask any questions that come up in the meantime.

Florian

The next step up from this is to use start and end times to calculate the number of hours worked:

Here the start and end times are Time fields and the Duration is a Calculation field. Showing the Time fields as hours, minutes and seconds is useful because Bento will assign the current seconds to a time if you do not explicitly set them yourself. For example, if the current time is 13:15:45 and you enter a time as 09:00 because you are only displaying hours and minutes Bento will actually store 09:00:45 which may cause problems with rounding. Therefore it is safest to have Time fields use the Medium display format rather than the Short one.

The Duration formula is:

The End Time – Start Time part is fairly self-explanatory and the division of the result by (60 * 60) is necessary because Bento returns the results of date and time calculations in seconds. Since the result of the calculation should be in hours the seconds need to be converted to hours which is done by dividing them by 3,600 or 60 * 60. Remember to set the results of the Calculation field to be displayed as a Number and with one or two decimal places depending upon how much detail you want to see.

Obviously, if the time recording system is being used to allocate hours to projects or clients additional fields may be needed to store the name of the project and/or the name of the client. Similarly if multiple employees or volunteers are being tracked then a field to store the employee or volunteer names would be necessary.

A more advanced time recording system would perhaps tie in with other Libraries. For example, rather than repeating employee or volunteer names it may be a good idea to use the Address Book or a dedicated Library to store the person’s details and then use a Related Records List to store the time-based details:

Click for a Larger View

For more information about Related Records List please see our guide.

However, because Bento’s related record capabilities are designed to be simple there is an inherent lack of power and flexibility in them and so it may be better to either stick with a one-Library solution or live with some duplicate data and store the person’s name in the main time recording Library. This will allow for the creation of Smart Collections to filter and total records by person and date range which may be useful for calculating weekly, monthly, etc. totals.

Click for a Larger View

One of the areas which seems to cause the most confusion for Bento users is that of Related Records Lists. I am therefore delighted to say that I have written a guide to them which will hopefully explain what they can do, when they should be used, and how they are used.

The guide was meant to be fairly comprehensive but also fairly concise but the number of screenshots involved in making it a good visual guide meant that it quickly evolved into a fairly lengthy document so it will initially be released as a PDF and I will try to break it up into a series of actual articles over the next few days.

Comments and suggestions are, as ever, most welcome.

Download the Related Records Lists Guide.

Part one of the screencast covers the following topics:

• Introduction to Bento
• The Bento Interface
• Core Concepts – Libraries and Collections
• Address Book Integration
• Records & Table View
• Form Views
• Creating a Library
• Adding Fields
• Form Customisation
• Themes
• Advanced Find
• Smart Collections

The topics covered in part two include:

• iCal Event and Task Integration
• How you might use iCal integration
• Additional Bento Fields
• Printing Tables and Forms
• Creating Mailing Labels
• How to import Data into Bento
• Backing up Your Data

ScreenCastsOnline is a weekly video podcast with a new Mac related tutorial published every week via iTunes. A full six month membership costs only $39 with the special discount coupon code allowing you to receive the next 26 brand new weekly shows. In addition, membership gives you immediate access to over 140+ HD tutorials featuring many different Mac related software tutorials including the second part of the Bento tutorial. For more information on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member visit www.screencastsonline.com/extra and don’t forget to use the code BENTO.

The first Bento tutorial is available as a QuickTime MOV file which you can download or watch in your web browser below. Click on the small monitor icon to view the tutorial full screen.

Beatrice Hamblett is a photographer who both sells her pictures and donates them to organisations such as museums. She needed to store detail about her photographs and also keep records about where they had been donated to or who they had been sold to. When she decides to make a photograph publicly available it is generally via a limited run of either ten or twenty five prints.

This tutorial explains the steps taken to develop a solution for Beatrice and it includes topics such as field definition, form design, and calculations.

The tutorial’s Disk Image contains a PDF document and a bentodb file which contains the completed solution. The steps necessary to use the bentodb file are included on the last page of the document.

Download the Photograph Sales Tutorial.