Don’t get it - not yet anyway!
It’s great for getting information into.
It’s great for looking pretty.
It’s great for customising.
It’s rubbish for getting information back out - it’s printing capacities… hurt.
It’s export capacities are nearly non-existant.
I don’t like it and it upsets me.
But it will, one day, be a really good application.
One day.
I hope this helps anyone!
Sebbi
I found Bento really helpful for cleaning up many problems in my Address Book and iCal files, which I had imported straight from Entourage. Bento’s tight integration with those programs allowed me to delete old contacts/dates and arrange them into groups that made more sense with my current work patterns. When I re-opened the apps, voila, they were all arranged in the manner of Bento. I’m also using Bento to create simple project outlines, with names and e-mails of contacts gathered around various tasks and dates. I can see the problems Sebbi notes, and hope that later versions will get better.
I got suckered in, myself. I wish I could agree with you, but the more I read about Filemaker Inc, I suspect it won’t ever get much better than it already is. Filemaker have a reputation for completing what other developers would consider…expected features…and then keeping them back for the next paid version. Bento 2 will be all about getting information out…or barring that, the ‘reccomended’ upgrade to Filemaker Pro 10. Bento is only supposed to be a gateway product, after all.
True it’s a gateway; but it’s just a little frustrating how terrible the print and export modules are. I mean, Bento is really really good at only displaying the information you want it to, in a really clean format. It just seems strange that they could have just ported that exact same functionality into the print module.
Absolutely agreed. I foolishly bought Bento, loaded all the stuff for multiple TV project formats into it, then loaded all the stuff for a collaboration book I recently finished, then… then tried to get it out again.
Couldn’t
Copy. Paste. Sigh. Copy. Paste. Tear hair. Copy. Paste. Shout at computer. Da capo ad infinitum.
Pointless. Filing’s not about getting it in. It’s about getting it out again. Hot damn.
Filemaker Pro Advanced