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• Recently Written

  • To Our Readers – Looking for Home.se April 26, 2012
  • Bento 4.0.7 Update Available April 25, 2012
  • Lion, iCloud, and Bento… October 25, 2011
  • Bento 4.06 Available October 1, 2011
  • Bento Price Drop Confirmed! August 23, 2011
  • Bento 4.0.5 Available! August 9, 2011
  • It’s Confirmed: Lion Is Fighting Bento! August 1, 2011
  • Bento 4.0.3 Update Is Unstable May 21, 2011
  • Customizing Themes Even Further April 23, 2011
  • Sorely Needed: Page Guides On Forms! April 23, 2011
  • List Field Refinements Needed April 12, 2011
  • Dear Filemaker & Bento Product Manager: April 11, 2011
  • New Free Service: iChat Screen-Sharing! April 10, 2011
  • Bento 4 Crashes Reach BentoUsers! March 17, 2011
  • Finally: Bento 4 – First Review! March 16, 2011

Get Bento 3 for $34 at the U.S. Apple Store today only, $15 off!

I recommend updating Bento to version 3.0.5 which has been released on November 1st.

Besides unspecified bug fixes, the update adds compatibility with the new iPhoto 11 and the new Mobile Me calendar. If you synch iCal with Mobile Me, you should read the release notes on the Filemaker website.
Otherwise, you can just update Bento from within the application.

New Addendum: the description of the Update on the Filemaker website suggests to download the update from the site and NOT from within the Bento application. I don’t know why, but I’ll try to find out.

Nov. 4: Filemaker assured me that the in-program update is a valid way; they still recommend to download the update from the website.

There is a wonderful and easy workaround for adding alarms to iCal events entered in the integrated Bento iCal Library.

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!

First of all I would like to apologize for the absence of new posts in recent months. Again, I would like to encourage any requests for specific content by you, our followers.

Otherwise, there is a lack of new developments, except for two template kits Filemaker released, the most recent one is a “survival kit” for students. In general, the template exchange is the only place with constant activity.
There is no known progress on Bento 4 to report, which is slightly disconcerting. I was really hoping on a similar schedule as last year – didn’t happen. We users are waiting for some simple features that are years overdue – notably styling of fonts. So the wait continues…

I do have one bit of positive news: I’m using Bento almost daily again, mainly to update my various tennis adventures. I added and edited lots of form elements, and I didn’t have a single crash in recent months. Filemaker didn’t eleborate ever on this, and there was no news about it in the forums – but somehow those few little updates to Bento 3 didn’t just fix bugs but also added program stability. Knock on wood…

As promised, today we’ll talk about importing “dirty” Bento Templates.
As a reminder, a dirty Template mostly includes unwanted Collections and Forms from iCal and/or Address Book.

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…

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