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Review: Bento 4

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Bento has been a long standing staple in the area of personal database management. Each version gets better with more and more useful features. While Bento has always been a  great value there have been some long standing feature requests that users have continued to scratch their heads as to why they were missing? One of those features is Label Printing. It kinda makes sense that you may want to print labels from your various records. It's not just about address labels. Think inventory labels, name badges, labels with photos, etc. 

Bento 4 also now offers the ability to export your Template with the Data. This makes it easy to not only move your data from computer to computer, but also to allow other Bento users access to your Template as well as the records you want to share. 

 

It's now Location Aware too

With Bento 4 you can now include a Location field in your Template. This data can be entered manually (I would never do that) or automatically via your computer's location (based on your internet connection). This is pretty cool for those that travel and collect data. They can know exactly where they were when the record was created or modified. While this is great for laptop users it's even better for iOS Device users of Bento for iPhone or Bento for iPad.

 

It's the little things too

Bento 4 has lots of little tweaks that I like too. My favorite one is the ability to simply drag a file into an open area of your template (hold it for a sec) and it automatcailly creates a new field. This includes the ability to drag and drop other file types such as PDF into your records to keep with the Bento data you collect. Also now you can Lock your Template to prevent accidental editing of the form.

 

The Bottom Line

 

 It still lacks a "mail merge" feature that many have asked for for a long time. However, there is no better personal information manager for your Mac for this price.While Bento is still available in the retail market, it's also now available on the Mac App Store for $49.99 here from the iTunes

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  • MissMatched

    Bento is, to me, a piece of software I would never buy. If I needed it for my business, I would buy Filemaker. If I needed a database for home then I would… Oh, right, I don’t need it. If Bento, Filemaker (same Co, I know) or any other company made a simple database that was EASY to publish to the web, it would be an instant success. Unfortunately, neither the applications nor the server side dito are simple enough to make it useful to mere mortals. Oh well, maybe in 5.0…

  • CaptDennis

    What good is a database that doesn’t easily print reports from selected fields? If it can do it, PLEASE tell me how!!! I bought Bento, but gave up on it! Since I started using the Macintosh in 1984 I’ve never found a “home” database better than iDATA PRO — even David Pogue (NY Times Tech guy) agrees with me!