Bento
Although it is not really just an app in the latest sense but is actually more a full-blooded Application, Bento by Filemaker has found its way into my heart and into my core of essential applications for my journalism duties and general business productivity. I have been a Filemaker user about as long as I have used Macs, and since the very first versions I always thought Filemaker had potential and was very useful for building quick powerful (if not necessarily universal relational) database solutions. The power of Filemaker development and use is the rationale and business model that has lead to Filemaker’s launching of Bento now in its forh version. There is a very extensive depository of free templates available in the Bento Exchange allowing users to select from among a number of bite-sized business, organizational, education and productivity solutions to add to one’s Bento solution platform. This is actually a very creative approach that places the exceptional work of many filemaker developers in front of tons of new users.
Filemaker provides a program trial so you can see if you like it prior to purchase. Then if you do, the purchace price is reasonable enough to compel you to dive right in. Then you can begin explorign the Template Exchange to discover and download solutions that fit your workflow or needs. Once you start using Bento you will be surprised just how truly useful it can actually be and it will be hard to imagine how you got along without it.
I strongly applaud the Filemaker team for thinking outside the Bento Box and coming up with this approach. I only wish that other companies (especially in Cupertino) could be as creative and forward thinking.
The fact that you can go in and continue to customise and modify the templates by adding or deleting fields as you chose I think puts Bento into the realm of The Best. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Bento a firm 10, and a big “Right On” to the whole team that made it happen. Good Job!
