Bento 2 by FileMaker
Bento® 2, the new version of the wildly popular personal database from FileMaker® that's as easy to use as your Mac.
- organise contacts, calendars, emails, events, files and photos
Overview
Note: Products sold through this website that do not bear the Apple Brand name are serviced and supported exclusively by their manufacturers in accordance with terms and conditions packaged with the products. Apple's Limited Warranty does not apply to products that are not Apple-branded, even if packaged or sold with Apple products. Please contact the manufacturer directly for technical support and customer service.
Most Recent Reviews
-
Bento 2 by FileMaker
Still dissapointed after 2 versions
Written by KW from Stuart
Apr 17, 2009
Add me to the list of very dissatisfied buyers. I got Bento at v1.x ran the trial and decided to buy. After running the program …Read morebeyond my 30 days, I started racking up the many short comings the software had to offer. I stopped using it after losing data in additional fields I added to the database, and simply not being able to get the software to do what I was told it could do for me.
v2.0 came out and I gave it some time and then decided to buy it with high hopes, the problems I experienced with v1.0 had been solved. Boy was I even more disappointed. Not only were the issues not solved, but all I found they added was more fluff that made the software even more difficult to deal with.
I use a Mac Pro for my office and a Macbook Pro for on the road. I have found no way to effectively set up a database where I could access from one machine or the other. Not at the same time mind you, just from the laptop or the desktop as needed (even storing on the laptop and accessing from the Mac Pro through the network didn't work). I even tried using Bento and then copying the database folder over to the opposite machine after I was done, hoping to just keep the database changes in synch. If I added information to additional fields not stored in Address book, the information would not be contained in the field on the opposite machine. Even after I copied the database from the machine I modified the data on, over to the machine I wanted to synch.
Perhaps if you are going to use this on one machine only, it may work for you. But for the majority of us that use a laptop for going on the road, and the creature comforts of a desktop system for home office production (especially a nice beefy Mac Pro), this software will do nothing but give you hours of disappointment trying to find a way to make it work, both on the road and off.
Since I have paid for the software already (twice), all I can hope for is that FileMaker will get their heads out of their cabooses and give us a decent program worth the money we spent. But I can tell you, I flat refuse to purchase the next update or upgrade when it becomes available, and I'm sorely sorry I spent the money I did.(7 of 8 people found this review useful)
Was this useful?
-
Bento 2 by FileMaker
Basic requirement not met
Written by SM from EDINBURGH
Mar 27, 2009
Bento is good at the frills bit of a Database - providing patterned and coloured backgrounds etc. However, ask Bento to do a real…Read morely useful task of printing addresses, imported from Address Book, onto a sheet of labels it fails. Not only that but "Help" has no ideas either. I have had to revert to good old Appleworks which can do a mail-merge and do the printing. Bento is very disappointing!
(4 of 5 people found this review useful)
Was this useful?
-
Bento 2 by FileMaker
Formulas & labels
Written by BW from Scituate
Mar 25, 2009
Disappointed is an understatement!
I find the antique program Appleworks has more powerful database functions.
FORMULAS - Bento…Read more 2 offers very basic formulas and only a very few of them. "If/Then" for example. IF - Field A is blank, THEN - insert (whatever) into Field B. Sorry - can't do that.
PRINTING LABELS - WOW! After I entered data into 4000 records, each having 9 fields, I discovered Bento 2 can't print a simple thing like a price label on Avery Labels. All Bento 2 can offer is Address labels using another program like Apple Address book. After hours of research and experimenting with about 5 different free trial programs I found Avery Design Pro almost worked. Unfortunately Avery's program doesn't properly accept special characters. Nothing extravagant mind you, simple quotation marks print as junk.
BENTO 2 - Appleworks came out sometime in the 1980's. Twenty something years ago and it handled these issues far better. You folks need to go back to the drawing board before I'll invest any additional time in this program.
I'm an apple user since before there were programs - 1979. I began with the Apple II Plus loaded with 48K of memory and one 5 1/4" floppy drive. In this day and age I find it difficult to understand how a well established company can release a basic program that lacks basic functions. It's not like this is the first low end database to hit the MAC world. Uncle B
(34 of 34 people found this review useful)
Was this useful?
Most Useful Reviews
-
Bento 2 by FileMaker
It's all bad. Very Bad.
Written by CB from Basalt
Oct 20, 2008
The above review is highly likely a blatant self promotion of the program.
1. The review date is the day after Bento 2 was rele…Read moreased. Hardly time for a good testing and considering there is a 30 day trial what is the rush there buddy.
2. There is no mention of any new features or why it is amazing.
3. If you correct the obvious grammaitical errors the review reads like a faked school report.
4. It seems that all other forums and discussions regarding Bento 2 are extremely critical of the program. Also expressing disapointment in how Filemaker/Apple have handled the release and pricing.
I have had Bento since it was first released and bought it with high hopes of it filling a gap. For me it wasn't quite there but I have continued to use it a few things and was waiting for a good update to take care of the obvious bugs and hopefully many of the improvements users had been discussing and submitting. This didn't happen.
What should have been only a 1.1 has been wrapped up in candy paper and priced like it actually contained the improvements users have been looking/asking for.
If you are considering buying please consider how the 100's of thousands users who just got shafted. Check out the user forums to see the general feeling and opinion.
I rate this program 1 out of 5 stars! - only because I can't select 0.
Why are there no other reviews here?
To Apple/Filemaker, step up the mic and lets hear what you have to say on this.(319 of 375 people found this review useful)
Was this useful?
-
Bento 2 by FileMaker
Not worth it
Written by JH from Merida
Oct 24, 2008
Seriously, to call this an update is an overstatement. Maybe users that START with Bento 2 will feel the program is neat and can h…Read moreandle the bugs. But as a user of Bento 1 sincerely expected more from the company.
This is not an upgrade, it is a version that marketing people got up 0.9 more units than it should have.
Issues:
- Harder to customize fields
- Still no way to share data via network
- The new layout gives you less space for the list of fields that, if it is as long as mine, it means a lot more scrolling.
- Bugs bugs bugs. Program crashes.
Gotta go... just visit MacWorld's review and THEN read the comments. Most users aren't happy. Or you could just visit FileMaker's forum and see the same thing.
After the 30 day trial I will downgrade and wait for a better response from FileMaker. I hope this gets posted by Apple.(250 of 265 people found this review useful)
Was this useful?
-
Bento 2 by FileMaker
Back to Version 1
Written by EC from North Attleboro
Oct 23, 2008
Well, we ran the trail version 2 and have returned to version 1 the purported new features are not worth the $49.
Some of the …Read moreAddress Book fields are no longer editable by design in version 2 and the field sizes have increased in form layout making all of the version 1 forms much too large.
The program still has bugs, needs to be beta tested - check out the user forums at Filemaker. Bugs in version 1 have not been corrected and there has been no official statement from FM that they will fix them unless they cause data corruption. Some are fixed in version 2, but you'll have to spend another $49 to get the program you already paid for doing what it was already supposed to do.
Buyer beware!(215 of 235 people found this review useful)
Was this useful?
