[flammer]

I'm so upset that Apple will not upgrade my Apple 2e to a MacPro for free!!! Listen to yourselves! Bento 2 cost $49. This is much less than the price of most upgrades. You can upgrade to Photoshop CS4 from CS3, for a mere $399! This is the same issue that people have always "wrongly" complained about with most educational priced software. The price of the software at the educational price is already less than the cost of the regular upgrades.
They keep the purchase price low, but there are no upgrade policies. There are other companies like that. I agree that it sucks to have bought Bento 1.0 only 31 days prior to the release date, and have to pay full price, but then again, if they said 60 days, there would be someone who bought it 61 days prior who would complain...

[Azurite]

Wow, way to miss the point, flammer! Apple, Adobe, and similar software powerhouses have been around for a while, producing stuff over decades and refining it. They can get away with charging "a lot" (and what "a lot" is varies from person to person, because computing NEEDS vary from person to person, and some people might be willing to pay a lot for an artistic tool or operating system because that meets their immediate needs or is more of a priority) because they've PROVEN in the past to produce great products, to respond to consumer needs and suggestions.

Bento is a VERSION 1 piece of software. Yeah, I'm talking about what THEY'RE calling "Bento 2" --because the product FileMaker released as Bento 1, after much testing, turned out to be more of a beta than anything else. The only reason why FileMaker knew about all the problems Bento 1 had and even had a rough idea of what new features to implement was because of the existing userbase that gave them feedback on their forums. Almost every suggestion or bug report was acknowledged, but this is how the time and effort of those early adopter users like myself gets rewarded? Yeah, I call foul.

I'm willing to give Adobe $399 of my money because they've proven that they deserve it. FileMaker doesn't. Also, Bento isn't an educational piece of software. It's supposed to be for the home user-- a simple database program that's elegant and does what a good database program should. It's not for huge firms or companies-- that's what FM markets their self-titled software for. So it's not like any of us got some sort of "educational bargain" like I do off Adobe creative suite products. I don't expect Adobe to offer me a super-steep discount for the CS4 Design Premium package update just because I'm an educational buyer-- $399's pretty damn good compared to the full version price, so I'll take it-- again, because they've proven they deserve it!

Also, it's not JUST the fact that there's no upgrade cost, it's that they didn't even bother to fix the bugs in ver. 1 with patch updates. Can you honestly say you're willing to pay $49 for something that, in three months or so, might be outdated and you can't do JS about it? How do you know BentoVER2 doesn't have the same bugs reported for BentoVER1? What if it has new bugs? You'll only find out with sustained use, but guess what? Once you do, even if you report them, Filemaker doesn't care! So you'll end up joining the throngs of people out $100+ for a buggy piece of unfinished should-have-been-beta software.

[sterlingz]

Completely agree with all of the outrage, let's vote with our wallets. I am done with FM - they will never get my money again. A company that behaves this way cannot be trusted. I used to hold Chronos Software in low regard because they would not fix bugs in SOHO Notes and force users to the next version. I still think this is pretty lame, but at least they offer a reasonable discount on those upgrades. Filemaker has neither supplied significant patches for their buggy 1.0 release or offered an upgrade path. Disgraceful. No more business from me.

[BL888]

I am absolutely disappointed, that there is NO UPGRADE to version 1.x !!!
I am Not interested to buy from File Maker again. PERIOD !!!

[Azurite]

Way to miss the point, Imran. You're lucky that your experiences with the program and FileMaker have been so good, but not so for a lot of us. We all realize that companies are under no obligation to provide us with upgrade pricing, but given that the Bento v1 was pretty buggy, in need of patches, and lacking some very basic features, it seems ridiculous to charge users of v1 over again when those issues (or at least the bulk of them) should have been resolved in v1.2. When a product comes out with an update that's full-price, you're usually willing to pay for it because the product that you've already BEEN using is great. Not so with Bento v1-- there are just oo many things that it's lacking or that need to be fixed, and FileMaker should have addressed those before releasing a v2.

[fredemigh]

Still missing important (to me) but basic features: (1) the ability to customize forms in plain formatting, including overriding fonts and styles in browse mode. Bento's templates are pretty, but often inadequate for my older eyes. (2) listing of multiple forms on screen. Printing such has been enabled, but I like to compare entries on screen - more than the table view shows with its tiny fonts limited to one line per record. (3) The big single database file makes me nervous - Iwould rather have separate file for each 'library' so that one bad library could not corrupt the rest.

[NE1956WS]

@ Vinny



Check here about upgrade pricing:



http://filemaker.cus...php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=7009&pcreated=1223994665&psid=DnPVMPgj&paccessibility=0&predirect=&plva=&psp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0yNjg2LDI2ODYmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BzX2Fuc191cGRhdGVkPSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&pli=&ptopview=1

[dannsh]

I agree. I may not upgrade at all and if I do I will wait until Bento 3 and see if it has more new features than bug fixes.

[FrankeeD]

Did you read any of the reviews of Bento 1? Did you download the trial version to check it out yourself? I read a number of reviews about v.1 and decided against buying it because they pointed out the limitations. I also tried it out and figured it wasn't work $49, so I didn't buy it.

Don't blame Filemaker if you didn't do your homework before buying.

[dfs]

Now, this is a downright stupid piece of advice. FileMaker and Bento MAY someday break under Snow Leopard or some other new OS, and upgrades MAY not be made available. But unless you happen to be a developer and have access to beta releases of Snow Leopard, you have no idea in the world what items of software actually WILL break under it. Your advice to transfer data to Open Office's database tool MIGHT be good advice IF Open Office continues to run under Snow Leopard and IF Filemaker and/or Bento don't. When you get aboard a ship it's a smart idea to note where the lifeboats are located, but it's not so bright to hop in them right then and there. I'm going to keep storing my data in Bento. If it turns out that Bento won't work under Snow Leopard, well, fine, I'll reboot in Leopard and transfer my data to Open Office at least temporarily. But not until then, thanks all the same.

[mlariche]

Yes, I am very disappointed also, bought mine end of April this year....they should offer SOME reasonable upgrade or I'll wait till version 3 or 4.

[James101]

Reviewers keep writing that Bento allows you to import AppleWorks data files. They did it with version 1, but you had to do the same old kludgey workaround that is being touted as an improvement in version 2, i.e. "version 2 also supports import and export of tab-delimited text files, so you can now move the data from your old AppleWorks databases into Bento."

Sounds easy. It isn't. Because exporting an Appleworks database file strips it of its field headings. So you have to actually set up a completely new database each time before you can import the data. (And setting up Bento databases is not as intuitive as in AppleWorks!).

With several decades of AppleWorks databases to transfer, I cannot afford the time.

Why cannot FileMaker write appropriate code to import (and export?) AppleWorks' database files directly into Bento? They have coded all the pretty looks, what about some useful substance?

Cyril

[wideEyed]

The problem with this full version upgrade is that Bento v1 never received a bug fix. Goto the Bento forum at FM and see all the hard work that users put into their payed for beta software that was v1.

The unique number data type in Bento is totally unworkable. They asked me for examples on the forum and explanations which I took time to provide. Just a small example but there were dozens of other issues, a few of which I came across through my needs. In the end I abandoned time-sheet logging and invoicing back to Numbers. I still use Bento to log call details when I am sourcing. It isn't elegant but it works. How can any product claiming to be a DB have an unworkable unique number data type (like you might use for a receipt number) and claim to be anything more than a beta.

I cannot confirm but one user has reported the unique number data type is still buggy in v2. Many others are saying they can't get back to version 1 after trying v2. And more again are outraged that the (unpaided) outsourced beta-testing community that worked so hard to help people with this inspired but faulty product has been thanked by ignoring the most common feature improvement/fix requests. Further we are expected to pay full price for the slap in the face.

I will say that better input/output of individual libraries is a really needed improvement. Especially for workarounds in Numbers because Bento is still quite limited. Also for sharing a library with somebody without having to import and build the forms from scratch on the other system. In my view this is a x.1 or x.5 equivalent fix and one of a very few in v2. Should be free to existing users. If it is too late to reverse the decision, make v3 a low-cost upgrade to v1 users.

Sorry Filemaker just not enough meat on the bone for this dog. Not sure I'ld even download for free given the reports of it being so much slower. It's already pretty slow switching tables.

For new buyers, try demo and really test it in demo period. Things that look easy in the FM movies are not good indicators of general experience. Bare in mind that Filemaker have as much customer and forum user loyalty as the worst in the industry. I didn't even get an email saying the new version was out and I am registered and a forum participant.

[Ismael1516]

HI, I am trying to figure out which contact management program(Bento 2, or Filemaker Pro) can I use as a Real Estate agent. What I want is to be able to add either template or other format which I could use over again when getting information from sellers, buyers and filing out forms without having to go to word or excel. I want the forms to be in tabs so that I could just go to the tab and fill out the info.
Thanks