
Filemaker announced Bento 2.0 yesterday. It’s been a while since we’ve seen any updates to Bento (1.0v2 was released in February) but version 2.0 shows some big improvements.
I’ve had a chance to spend a few days with this latest update and it looks like a solid step in the right direction. Bento remains focused as a personal database that does three things: delivers the full OS X Leopard experience, is highly accessible, and looks good. Version 2.0 stays true to this vision but adds some important new functionality to make it even better. Here’s what’s new…
Improved Integration with Mac OS X Leopard
One of the best features of Bento has always been the direct linking with items in Address Book and iCal. Bento 2.0 takes this concept further with linking to Mail. You can associate emails with any type of record in a library by creating a Message List field. To add email messages to this list, you can just drag and drop the messages from Mail directly. For many users, this completes the trifecta of project management: task and event data from iCal, contact info from Address Book, and now email messages from Mail.app.

The Message List
There are lots of other small details where the integration with OS X Leopard features has been improved. You can now see the Address Book photos inside Bento, click on the street address field to view a Google map or get directions, or start an iChat session by clicking on the IM Account List field.
Display phone number as large type
Send email to address
Open map or get directions with Google Maps
Open ichat session
Streamlined Interface
The window layout has been simplified to more closely resemble the two pane layout of iTunes. The Libraries chooser takes up the left bar and the forms appear on the right. Some of the big “+” buttons for adding a new library, record or field have been removed from the bottom bar to reduce the complexity of the main window. Now the big “+” button is reserved for adding a new record.
There are smaller, and more specific, icons for adding libraries, collections and new fields that lay within the pane where they belong. The field list has lost its own pane on the right and has been moved to the left hand bar below the Libraries list, where it can be hidden when not in use.

Field List
Table view now includes a number of spreadsheet features that make it much more usable. You can click, type and tab to enter data right in the list. You can quickly copy information with a fill-down feature, add or change fields right in table view, and still sort tables by clicking on column headings
The brand new feature in the layout is a split view that puts a list on top and a form below, activated with a new split button at the top right corner. I really like this new split view because it lets you quickly jump around different records and see the details below.

A Pretty Face
Bento themes have always felt a little awkward to me. The colors and fonts, while fun and color-coordinated, didn’t always seem like they would make a good choice for extended use. I can’t imagine sitting down to the “Ultra Violet” theme, as an example, for a couple hours each day if I were using Bento to help manage my business.
Still, many of the themes offer readable fonts and color palettes with decent contrast. Bento 2.0 introduces a few new themes to the available choices.
Customizing the layout of Bento forms is even easier. All you have to do to reposition elements on the form is to click on the field name to switch into Customize Mode. Once you are in Customize Mode, you can drag and drop elements on the page and Bento will intelligently flow items around your form. This is a great Bento feature I would really love to see come to Filemaker Pro.
Another change that many will appreciate comes in the printing options. You can print more than one record per page in Form View and the Table View has a Fit to Width checkbox in the print dialog that will resize the columns automatically.
Plays Well With Others
In the original version of Bento, it was possible to import data from a CSV file. In Bento 2.0 it is possible to import an Excel or a Numbers document directly. I was able to select a Numbers file with multiple tables and Bento correctly recognized the tables in the file available to import. Bento 2.0 also adds the option to import and export tab delimited files. This is of particular interest to AppleWorks users who can now use tab-separated files to work with Bento.
Exporting options have been improved as well. Along with the different text files (comma- or tab-separated) you can create a Numbers or Excel document as part of the Export routine. This direct export feature makes it a lot simpler to use Bento as a form-based, data-entry system and still export data for analysis or charting in Numbers or Excel.
Another cool export function is the ability to export your template (just the form layout with no data) to share with other Bento users. Filemaker is planning a Bento Template Exchange to allow users to share their Bento creations online.
Conclusion
Bento 2.0 is a good upgrade that adds some really solid features and interface improvements. Bento still doesn’t rival Filemaker Pro or Access (for those coming from the PC world) because it doesn’t offer scripting and multi-user access. However, for those that only need a simple single-user solution, Bento is really good at letting people organize their information without having to take classes in database administration. I welcome the new Fit to Width option in Table View, but I would really like to see more flexible print options for creating nice reports on paper or in PDF files. The new changes to the interfaces make it less confusing, and split view is extremely useful. I also really like the idea of the Bento Template Exchange so users can share their solutions with each other. Of all the new features, I think the new import/export options will be used by the most people and is particularly good news for those that use iWork or have been waiting for tab-separated file support to bring in their data from AppleWorks databases.
I’m glad to see that Filemaker is continuing to work on improving Bento, and I’m relieved that Bento 2.0 is not a radical departure from the first version. The release of version 2.0 clearly shows that Filemaker has a strong vision for what they want the product to provide and they are taking steps to improve Bento and still keep it focused on where it belongs.
Bento is available now for download from Filemaker.com and should appear in stores soon. Pricing remains the same — $49 for a single user license and $99 for the family pack.
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