Hmmm, quick editing of their contacts and calendar? I played around with it a little bit and found it a bit underwhelming. When accessing ical data for example, you can only acces and modify a subset of the data. You cannot change the repeats for events for example.
Also, although the functionality sure is nice, in this prerelease both the forms and the table view look and behave very unpolished, especially when compared to the iWork apps. UI-elements look and behave annoyingly different from iWork and much more primitive. Double-click a cell in a table and you get a two-line editing box. Why?? No drag-and-drop of single cells. Why??
Page layout is more primitive than in Numbers and the templates are all a bit dull and un-inspiring.
I have a feeling that this app would feel and behave way nicer if it had been executed by the iWork team at the Apple mothership.
As a matter of fact I think this stuff would be way more usefull as added, and highly integrated, functionality on top of numbers than as a stand-alone app. It is just to different and separate from iWork as-is, but could in principle add some great stuff to iWork '09.....
In its current stand-alone form not worth ?49,- IMHO.
Just a little confused. Didn't Apple separate these items? Didn't Windows follow suit in Vista? So why is a Apple company looking to integrate like Outlook use to? Maybe this is why it was not included in iWorks. Apple didn't want to be seen directly copying Outlooks integration when they had made such a big deal about how Microsoft had copied their Mail, Address and Calendar programers.
Just a little confused. Didn't Apple separate these items? Didn't Windows follow suit in Vista? So why is a Apple company looking to integrate like Outlook use to? Maybe this is why it was not included in iWorks. Apple didn't want to be seen directly copying Outlooks integration when they had made such a big deal about how Microsoft had copied their Mail, Address and Calendar programers.
This is really not like Outlook at all. It is a database-program where you can make simple databases based on templates. The only vague similarity to outlook is its integration with the data-sources behind iCal and addressbook. There is no link with email-data at all currently.
I think this should be integrated into the iWork/iLife suite, either as a separate app or as added functionality into numbers. Example possibility:
Create a nice database-front-end form in pages, upload the form to your dot-mac account and have numbers retrieve the data from the dot-mac server and create some nice graphs from that. Create your webshop back-and front end, start with some templates and have it up- and running in an hour with apple-like simplicity and style.
If this is eventually to be part of iWork, I for one, will not bother using it until it can open, edit and export MS Access format as Numbers does with Excel.
Why is it so difficult for a database that has images, to export it to the web? No database program that I know of can do this and I just want to make a very simple database that has two Image fields and four text fields, repeatedly and then to be able to export this to the web. Sounds easy enough!
I think Apple had the FileMaker folks release this so that the "general public" perceives it as a "FileMaker Lite" and not some new random iApp. I have a feeling they will sell it as a separate product for a year and then once it has matured a little, roll it into iWork '09.
Apple is not trying to create an Outlook competitor. It is simply an easy way of giving Bento some "out-of-the-box" functionality to work/play with. Think of the Address Book and Calendar as sample projects to give you an idea of what Bento does/could do.
I think Bento is a great idea and makes databases friendly enough that users won't be intimidated to try making their own. Were it free and included with every new Mac, it could be the next HyperCard.
Web export and integration with .Mac would be a great feature and I'm sure is somewhere on the roadmap.
I think Apple had the FileMaker folks release this so that the "general public" perceives it as a "FileMaker Lite" and not some new random iApp. I have a feeling they will sell it as a separate product for a year and then once it has matured a little, roll it into iWork '09.
I have a feeling you are correct. The 'New Library' looks just like the iWork template screens. Apple, rather than create a database application themselves, had their database subsidiary create it for them. I am sure Apple is working on creating a way for Numbers 2.0 to access the Bento databases.
Ha! Well, I'm guessing they named it Bento after the Japanese Bento box, which is a lunchtime box with a variety of food items in it. Not that that makes a whole lot of sense, either, but it's the only Bento I know of...
I have to say I'm quite intrigued with the idea of a simple database program for the masses, but not being able to run SQL off it doesn't sound so good for an intermediate user like me. I guess Filemaker's more my speed. Should be interesting to see how it does out in the market!
If this is eventually to be part of iWork, I for one, will not bother using it until it can open, edit and export MS Access format as Numbers does with Excel.
It never will. AFAIK, there isn't a non-Microsoft app that can read Access databases. It's a Microsoft secret file format...
It never will. AFAIK, there isn't a non-Microsoft app that can read Access databases. It's a Microsoft secret file format...
I don't see Apple legitimizing Access either.
This is really too bad--Access is the (one) great product MS makes. It isn't perfect (the presupposition that all data belongs in one huge file is a little obtuse and inflexible, not to mention substantially limiting), but it is surprisingly friendly and customizable, especially for an MS product. However, there is NOT ONE Apple-compatible database as easy to setup and customize. Not FileMaker, not 4D, not OpenOffice. I know, I've tried all three. If you're a good enough programmer (which I'm not), possibly RealBASIC has the custimizability (though the RealDB is just a stand-in for a beefier engine). Presently, I'm running my MS Access databases... in Access through Virtual PC. It's not the ideal situation, but it's the best one for the best product I can avail myself of.
Bento is a Japanese word for a kind of boxed lunch. The food is packed so that each part of the meal is in its own section within the box. I guess the parallel with the app is that it brings several different sources of information (i.e., the food) into a single interface (i.e., the box). Having lived in Japan, I like the name.
Bento is a Japanese word for a kind of boxed lunch. The food is packed so that each part of the meal is in its own section within the box. I guess the parallel with the app is that it brings several different sources of information (i.e., the food) into a single interface (i.e., the box). Having lived in Japan, I like the name.
and the ui sort of looks like a bento box. cute name for it. as you say, it also implies order and organization.
I'm running a political campaign. We're using FileMaker Pro and the Donations application from FMI to manage our, well, donations. And we've got a very powerful web-based database that we use for our voter file.
But I've also go lots of needs for other, smaller databases. I've started building them in Bento. Today, I moved my press contact list out of Excel and into Bento, where I can easily tag different media by type (newspaper, TV, etc) and community (African American, GLBT, etc), and then create Smart Groups that pull out the various communities I might need to focus on. And that's just with ten minutes of work building the database fields, importing and then designing my Form view.
Now, I can see some ways that Bento could be limiting, but building these quick and useful databases in Bento is far and away better than doing so in FileMaker Pro. Those of use who need data crunching needs that are just a bit beyond Excel's simplistic data management set will find a lot to like in Bento, I imagine.
I think Bento should be part of iWork. FileMaker's separate identity from Apple makes sense for selling a cross-platform product but a Mac-only consumer app seems much more Apple, particularly when it's picking up a missing piece of AppleWorks.
Comments
Hmmm, quick editing of their contacts and calendar? I played around with it a little bit and found it a bit underwhelming. When accessing ical data for example, you can only acces and modify a subset of the data. You cannot change the repeats for events for example.
Also, although the functionality sure is nice, in this prerelease both the forms and the table view look and behave very unpolished, especially when compared to the iWork apps. UI-elements look and behave annoyingly different from iWork and much more primitive. Double-click a cell in a table and you get a two-line editing box. Why?? No drag-and-drop of single cells. Why??
Page layout is more primitive than in Numbers and the templates are all a bit dull and un-inspiring.
I have a feeling that this app would feel and behave way nicer if it had been executed by the iWork team at the Apple mothership.
As a matter of fact I think this stuff would be way more usefull as added, and highly integrated, functionality on top of numbers than as a stand-alone app. It is just to different and separate from iWork as-is, but could in principle add some great stuff to iWork '09.....
In its current stand-alone form not worth ?49,- IMHO.
Just a little confused. Didn't Apple separate these items? Didn't Windows follow suit in Vista? So why is a Apple company looking to integrate like Outlook use to? Maybe this is why it was not included in iWorks. Apple didn't want to be seen directly copying Outlooks integration when they had made such a big deal about how Microsoft had copied their Mail, Address and Calendar programers.
Just a little confused. Didn't Apple separate these items? Didn't Windows follow suit in Vista? So why is a Apple company looking to integrate like Outlook use to? Maybe this is why it was not included in iWorks. Apple didn't want to be seen directly copying Outlooks integration when they had made such a big deal about how Microsoft had copied their Mail, Address and Calendar programers.
I think this should be integrated into the iWork/iLife suite, either as a separate app or as added functionality into numbers. Example possibility:
Create a nice database-front-end form in pages, upload the form to your dot-mac account and have numbers retrieve the data from the dot-mac server and create some nice graphs from that. Create your webshop back-and front end, start with some templates and have it up- and running in an hour with apple-like simplicity and style.
The only option to export is to a .csv file.
Why is it so difficult for a database that has images, to export it to the web? No database program that I know of can do this and I just want to make a very simple database that has two Image fields and four text fields, repeatedly and then to be able to export this to the web. Sounds easy enough!
Apple is not trying to create an Outlook competitor. It is simply an easy way of giving Bento some "out-of-the-box" functionality to work/play with. Think of the Address Book and Calendar as sample projects to give you an idea of what Bento does/could do.
I think Bento is a great idea and makes databases friendly enough that users won't be intimidated to try making their own. Were it free and included with every new Mac, it could be the next HyperCard.
Web export and integration with .Mac would be a great feature and I'm sure is somewhere on the roadmap.
I think Apple had the FileMaker folks release this so that the "general public" perceives it as a "FileMaker Lite" and not some new random iApp. I have a feeling they will sell it as a separate product for a year and then once it has matured a little, roll it into iWork '09.
I have a feeling you are correct. The 'New Library' looks just like the iWork template screens. Apple, rather than create a database application themselves, had their database subsidiary create it for them. I am sure Apple is working on creating a way for Numbers 2.0 to access the Bento databases.
Bento?
Sounds like a Gas-X or whatever
Another reason for my to upgrade to leopard!
Ha! Well, I'm guessing they named it Bento after the Japanese Bento box, which is a lunchtime box with a variety of food items in it. Not that that makes a whole lot of sense, either, but it's the only Bento I know of...
I have to say I'm quite intrigued with the idea of a simple database program for the masses, but not being able to run SQL off it doesn't sound so good for an intermediate user like me. I guess Filemaker's more my speed. Should be interesting to see how it does out in the market!
If this is eventually to be part of iWork, I for one, will not bother using it until it can open, edit and export MS Access format as Numbers does with Excel.
It never will. AFAIK, there isn't a non-Microsoft app that can read Access databases. It's a Microsoft secret file format...
Dave
It never will. AFAIK, there isn't a non-Microsoft app that can read Access databases. It's a Microsoft secret file format...
I don't see Apple legitimizing Access either.
This is really too bad--Access is the (one) great product MS makes. It isn't perfect (the presupposition that all data belongs in one huge file is a little obtuse and inflexible, not to mention substantially limiting), but it is surprisingly friendly and customizable, especially for an MS product. However, there is NOT ONE Apple-compatible database as easy to setup and customize. Not FileMaker, not 4D, not OpenOffice. I know, I've tried all three. If you're a good enough programmer (which I'm not), possibly RealBASIC has the custimizability (though the RealDB is just a stand-in for a beefier engine). Presently, I'm running my MS Access databases... in Access through Virtual PC. It's not the ideal situation, but it's the best one for the best product I can avail myself of.
Can we start the renaming contest now, or should we wait till it's ready to be part of iWork?
Is there any difference?
And can Bento use Entourage data?
Bento is a Japanese word for a kind of boxed lunch. The food is packed so that each part of the meal is in its own section within the box. I guess the parallel with the app is that it brings several different sources of information (i.e., the food) into a single interface (i.e., the box). Having lived in Japan, I like the name.
and the ui sort of looks like a bento box. cute name for it. as you say, it also implies order and organization.
What are people going to use this for?
I'm running a political campaign. We're using FileMaker Pro and the Donations application from FMI to manage our, well, donations. And we've got a very powerful web-based database that we use for our voter file.
But I've also go lots of needs for other, smaller databases. I've started building them in Bento. Today, I moved my press contact list out of Excel and into Bento, where I can easily tag different media by type (newspaper, TV, etc) and community (African American, GLBT, etc), and then create Smart Groups that pull out the various communities I might need to focus on. And that's just with ten minutes of work building the database fields, importing and then designing my Form view.
Now, I can see some ways that Bento could be limiting, but building these quick and useful databases in Bento is far and away better than doing so in FileMaker Pro. Those of use who need data crunching needs that are just a bit beyond Excel's simplistic data management set will find a lot to like in Bento, I imagine.
I'm evaluating a couple of projects here. If I choose Bento, I don't want any surprises later on.
Regards
Olympus
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dossier surendettement