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Easier Database... Filemaker Bento

Techstination feature for Monday, March 17, 2008

Making a database simple. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Beyond using a program like Microsoft's Outlook to store names, addresses and phone numbers….for most people…the thought of using a database is pretty intimidating. Filemaker…a subsidiary of Apple….is out with a software package called Bento that aims to change that. Product marketing manager Beth Nagengast..

"Well Bento is a personal database. And a lot of people might not know what a database is. But what it is is a way to get organized. It's a product that brings together all your important information into one place so you can access your phone numbers more easily, coordinate events, track your projects, prioritize your to-do list, all from one location."

What kinds of things can you organize with the software? Just about anything you can think of if you want to tinker. If you don't….built in templates will help….

"The most popular one is our contacts template. The event template is also popular so people coordinating family reunions and weddings and things like that. We have people that are tracking all of their paintings and the gallery openings where those paintings will be displayed. Also the projects template is a great one too to keep track of every person that's involved in a project."

. Bento runs only on Mac computers running OS X Leopard. It sells for 49 dollars. The more full featured Filemaker program…which sells for about 300 dollars…is available on both Mac and Windows platforms. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.