Bento 3 is geared towards consumers, home-based businesses, and small businesses who need a capable database for organizing information, tracking projects, planning events, and keeping inventory, but who don’t need the high-end features or cost of FileMaker’s flagship product, FileMaker Pro.
Bento 3 offers new features, including integration with iPhoto, new security options, new view options, and the ability to share Bento libraries with up to five users on a local network.
Bento 3 is a must-have upgrade for current Bento users, and a must-look-into if you’re shopping for your first database software.
Bento 3: Installation
Bento 3 is available in a retail (boxed) version and as an online download. I chose the download version for this review, but both versions follow the same installation process.
Load the Bento installation CD into your CD/DVD drive or double-click the file you downloaded from the FileMaker web site. You will be presented with a window that contains the Bento application and a folder that represents your Applications folder. Simply drag Bento to the Applications folder icon.
If you’re upgrading from a previous version, as I was, then the first time you launch Bento 3, it will create backups of all your older library files by copying the files and appending the phrase ‘UpgradeBackup’ to the library name. So, for example, if you have an old library called MyLibrary.bentodb, Bento 3 will create a backup file called MyLibraryUpgradeBackup.bentodb. Once it creates the backups, Bento will perform a little mojo on the libraries to make them compatible with Bento 3. By creating backups of your libraries, Bento makes it easy for you to go back to older versions of Bento, should you wish or need to.
Bento 3: First Impressions
Libraries shared by other Bento users are shown under the ‘Shared’ item in the Source list.
Courtesy of FileMaker, Inc.Bento 3 retains the same basic look as Bento 2. The two-pane interface is still the default. The big difference is the left-hand source pane. In addition to listing available libraries, it now has new entries. Most notable is the new iPhoto Library that Bento 3 creates. (More on that a bit later.) Just below the Library list is the Fields list, which displays the fields used by the selected Library.
The largest pane displays the current record or a list of records, depending on how the view options are set. Bento originally supported viewing records in a table format or individually, but Bento 3 has added new grid viewing and split-pane options that let you see your data in two views at the same time.
Overall, the Bento 3 interface hasn’t changed that much. If you’ve worked with iTunes, you will quickly pick up how Bento’s interface, and for that matter, Bento itself, works.
Bento 3: New Features
Let’s get right down to the new features that separate Bento 3 from previous versions. It seems FileMaker has been listening to Bento users and reviewers about Bento’s weaknesses and the features they wanted to see added in the next version.
Two often-cited weaknesses have been addressed. The first, sharing libraries with multiple users, was something that not only wasn’t Bento able to do, it wasn’t designed to do. Bento was originally designed to be a personal database application, but based on overwhelming requests from users, FileMaker added the ability to share a Bento library with up to five users on a local network. Yes, that means that five different people can use a single library at the same time.
The other major weakness was security. FileMaker corrected this by adding encrypted field types, which makes using Bento 3 to store personal information, including passwords and other vital data, a much better solution than previous versions. You can also now password-protect entire libraries.
Other new features include iPhoto integration; grid views of data; the ability to view details of a selected record as well as view all records in a library; an updated Table view; new field types; a new image box; the ability to print blank forms; group emailing; 10 new templates; and a better theme chooser.
We will take a look at some of the major changes in Bento 3 next.
Bento 3: iPhoto Integration
Bento 3 can display your iPhoto library.
Courtesy of Coyote Moon Inc.One of the first changes you’ll notice when you launch Bento 3 is that the source pane now has an entry for iPhoto. Clicking on the dropdown triangle next to the ‘iPhoto’ icon will reveal all of your iPhoto albums. All of your iPhoto images are automatically available for use in Bento; no need to import them individually or in groups. In addition to images, you will also see the basic iPhoto data for each image, including file name, date taken, image type, and file size. None of the embedded iPhoto data can be manipulated from within Bento, and deleting or copying images in Bento has no effect on the iPhoto originals.
Bento does however, add fields in the iPhoto records that you can edit: Photographer, Subject, Style, Category, Caption, and Comments. You can also add your own custom fields. Bento seems to be trying to serve as an add-on iPhoto catalog system. While an iPhoto catalog may be of interest to some users, the real power here is the ability to associate individual photos with other Bento libraries and records. Are you maintaining a home inventory? Drop the image of your new refrigerator from Bento’s iPhoto collection onto your home inventory record and you’ll have a linked image, with the home inventory record containing all of the product details.
Of course, you can use the iPhoto collections in Bento 3 in much more creative endeavors than home inventory. Product marketing, sales tracking, and inventory management all come to mind. You can expand the iPhoto cataloging records to meet almost any need.
