Bento

Using FileMaker Bento

The Bento Book: Beautify and Simplicity in Digital Organization has been revised and updated to cover Bento 3... and to include a variety of web-based features including video tutorials, podcasts, and articles.

You can find the additional materials on the publisher's website, and articles also are posted on http://northcountryconsulting.com.

Bento 3 adds new features that make it even more useful than the first two versions. Perhaps the most important one is the ability to synchronize and share databases among several Macs. It's still a personal database and not designed for simultaneous use by a large number of people, but now it's easy to share your data with yourself and a few family and friends (up to five). A number of other features are incorporated with these new sharing options -- most particularly the ability to encrypt and protect your data.

There are new data types, and a whole new way of looking at your libraries: a grid view as well as the original form and table views. There's a lot more use of images -- not surprising because one of the major new features is integration with your iPhoto library.

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Bento for iPhone and iPod touch

The big news is Bento for iPhone and iPod touch. Available for $4.99 from iTunes, it lets you sync libraries between your computer and iPhone using a WiFi network (you must be on the same one--it's not done via the Internet). At this time, the iCal libraries aren't part of the sync, but they still sync in the iPhone/MobileMe/Desktop path.