FileMaker unveils new Bento personal database
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 13, 2007 at 2:02pm
It was once hoped that iWorks would be updated with a database component, perhaps a “lite” version of FileMaker Pro, since FileMaker Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple. That hasn’t happened, but FileMaker has announced Bento, a personal database, which will ship in January.
It’s designed to complement iWork (as well as other Apple software) and requires Mac OS X 10.5. Bento will cost US$49, but a public preview is available now (which is a first for FileMaker Inc.)
“Bento is a new database for new generation of Mac users,” says Ryan Rosenberg, vice president marketing and services, FileMaker Inc. “It’s designed to be as easy to use as the Mac. Macs are selling in record numbers and Bento is designed to help Mac users bring all their information together and organize it.”
He adds that it’s for personal use and is designed to offer a zero learning curve. Bento organizes all your important information—contacts, coordinate events, track projects, prioritize tasks, and more — in one place. It provides direct links to the Mac OS X Address Book and iCal, ready-to-use templates, and themes.
With Bento, you can drag and drop or point and click to change the look of any form, and see information in a way that makes sense to you, Rosenberg says. You can customize fonts, fields, colors, columns, shading and more.
If you’re already using FileMaker Pro, Rosenberg says to be sure to check out Bento for your personal organization and productivity needs. It’s also a great way to organize all your after-work activities, community projects, school events and more, he adds.
Bento is designed exclusively for Mac OS X. It takes advantage of many of the new features of Leopard, including live linking to iCal data, core animation, advanced find, Time Machine backups, and multimedia features.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
