Bento 4.1 (for Mac)

Bento, Filemaker's personal database software for OS X, is an excellent, consumer-friendly Mac app for OS X users looking to stay organized. Bento 4.1 (a free upgrade for existing users, or $49 for new users) builds upon Bento 4's foundation by adding Bento for iPad compatibility, which lets you sync information between the desktop and mobile versions of the popular app. Bento, as always, is an excellent performer, but the wireless sync?which requires the iPad and desktop computer to be connected to the same signal (a big limitation)?needs an overall in an era where cloud data synching (such as to Google Docs) is the norm.

Getting Started With Bento 4.1
Bento organizes information in a hierarchy: Your database contains libraries that are collections of records, which are entries consisting of fields (individual data items, such as name or date). Libraries can also be subdivided into Smart Collections (groups of records based on criteria you specify), and folders to group related libraries. But thanks to templates, you can use Bento without worrying about all that, if you'd rather just organize those recipes or club members without thinking about the mechanics.

Bento 4 offers tutorial videos to get you started, or you can just dive in, if the thought of a database doesn't scare you. And, really, it shouldn't. Without prompting, the average user might not even think of Bento as a database, seeing it, instead, as just a cool visual way to organize data. Thankfully, Bento performs as slickly as it looks.

The Bento desktop software ties into Address Book, iCal, iPhoto, and Mail. In fact, the first time you start Bento, you see entries for these features in an iTunes-like pane along the left side of the page. You can, for example, drag the iCal Events library from the pane onto a contact form to associate events upcoming happenings with a particular person. It's extremely user-friendly. Changes made in Bento 4 reflect across Address Book and iCal and it syncs up nicely with the Bento for iPhone and Bento for iPad ($4.99, 4.5 stars) as well.

Useful Templates
Bento 4 includes useful templates, such as Vacation Planner, Health Record, Job Search, My House Search, Wine Collection, Party Planner, and Meeting Notes. You can also access Template Exchange, the online gallery that features user-designed templates.

To create a new library from a template, you either click the leftmost icon with the plus sign, or choose File > New Library from Template. A window drops down showing thumbnails of the available templates, which you can limit to Education, Personal, or Work categories. When you click Choose, your new library appears in the right panel list, with the main window open to a sample record.

Bento 4.1 includes useful templates, such as Vacation Planner, Health Record, Job Search, My House Search, Wine Collection, Party Planner, and Meeting Notes. You can also access Template Exchange, the online gallery that features hundreds of user-designed templates.

I noticed when I created a new library from the Vacation template that the only fields available were for the title, location, dates, pictures, and notes. But an option menu in the app's lower-left corner let me add flights and hotel information?very useful additions if you want to have all your trip particulars all in one place. I could also import photos and videos I took on the trip?a nice touch. Likewise, the Home Inventory library let me catalog household possessions with their date of purchase, description, a photo, condition, and insured values?indispensible in the unfortunate event of a burglary.

Alternatively, you can just start with a blank template, and add the fields of your choice. The Create a Field dialog lets you choose from Text, Number, Choice, Checkbox, Media, File List, Message List, Simple List, and Related Data field types. Simple Lists, a featured introduced in Bento 3, now has a spreadsheet-like functions that lets you perform calculations?an incredibly handy feature for those using Bento for business purposes.

After you choose your fields, you can drag them into a form view, and arrange them however you like. You can set the size of grid elements, and choose which field from the associated table should be used for their titles. You can also display a split screen that shows individual records in the bottom half and either grid or table view in the top. In short, Bento 4 gives you lots of flexibility in shaping your databases.

One potentially overlooked feature is the ability to lock forms. This insanely useful addition prevents any unwanted changes from occurring. You can lock/unlock a form by clicking the lock icon in the record's lower-right corner. The app also lets you record voice memos.

Bento 4.1 lets you create custom labels or choose from more than 250 ready-to-use label formats for mailing labels, inventory tags, name badges, file folders and many other uses. These labels can be customized with information from your database and with images, so there's flexibility in how you'd like to present them. These Labels, as well as forms, can now be printed using new options that let you control the margins and borders. There are also two new highly-attractive printer-friendly themes.

Bento Template Exchange, Wireless Syncing, and Location-Based Data
Bento 4.1 lets users share libraries. You can save a file to the desktop in a variety of formats for easy sharing (Numbers, Excel, Text, Template), or upload it to the Template Exchange (which houses over 800 downloadable templates). There's also the option to share a database with up to five others over a local network, but Bento lacks cloud-based access from any PC, a feature that is commonplace in contemporary computing. In this area, Bento 4.1 feels very antiquated.

Wireless syncing suffers that limitation, as well. Although it lets you sync data between the desktop and iPad Bento 4.1 software, it can only be done when both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. In other words, you can't stray out of Wi-Fi range if you want the software to speak with one another. That's a big limitation for those who enter data while away from their Macs. I can easily see SMBs business people using Bento on the road regretting the lack of Internet syncing.

Bento 4.1 contains location-based tagging (done either manually or automatically) that lets you affix location information to databases using the new location field either manually or via Wi-Fi. With automatic location fields, you can record the location of site inspections, log customer visits, track travel sites, or capture survey locations. In addition, you can use the date searching options to create Smart Collections to schedule and prioritize and track projects with ease, as well as display records based on completion date, due date, and other criteria.

Should You Purchase Bento (for Mac)
Bento 4.1 is a great tool for managing the information of most interest and importance to the average person, without exposing them to the usual complexity of relational databases such as FileMaker Pro. Still, cloud-based access from any personal computer would be a very welcome addition, especially in an age where people work and play on multiple machines (and wireless sync needs to happen over any signal). Bento 4.1 may be the only high-profile consumer-end database available for the Mac, but it's a superb one, and more than worthy of an Editors' Choice award.

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