[Macworld]

Post your comments for Getting started with Bento here

[bierman99]

I have used AppleWorks for a long time to keep a database and then use Mail Merge to create individual letters and envelopes for the people in my database with Fields filled in the letter from the database. Now that I use Pages and tried Bento, I could find no way to do the same. Have you found a way?

[lucchese20]

Thanks Jeff for this timely 'hands-on' article. Despite the various shortcomings I understood pertaining to Bento version 1, I took the recent plunge for Bento2. One of the "new" features of Bento2 is the ability to import directly from MS Excel into Bento2 without saving file as a CSV file. If correct, this should simplify the process you describe. Correct?

[TSGal]

bieman99:

Bento integrates with Address Book, and Address Book performs mail merge with Pages. Therefore, if you put your data in the Address Book Library, it will update your Address Book application, and then you can use Pages to reference the appropriate fields within Address Book.

TSGal
Filemaker, Inc.

[duvel]

I use microsoft access, and am tired of having to do this in windows emulation because there is no Mac version. Is there any way of importing data from access to Bento (or to any other Mac-based database software)?

[reyespoint]

There's a great tip at Bentousers.com (http://www.bentousers.com/20080411-importing-related-data-into-bento/) that uses Microsoft Access as a starting point for importing data into Bento. I think, as with this article, that in order to get your Access data into Bento, you'll first need to export your existing data into a .CSV format.

This tip is also great because it shows you how to import and link related data automatically; a tip which doesn't appear in this article.

Bentousers.com is a great Bento resource, although not always updated regularly.

-Jeff Battersby
Message was edited by: reyespoint to erase a dumb typo.

[duvel]

reyespoint said:

There's a great tip at Bentousers.com ([http://www.bentousers.com/20080411-importing-related-data-into-bento/]) that uses Microsoft Access as a starting point for importing data into Bento. I think, as with this article, that in order to get your Access data into Bento, you'll first need to export your existing data into a .CSV format.

Yes indeed, that seems a promising post. Thanks for pointing it out!

[JadziaDax]

Will Bento2 import from an earlier version of Excel (10.1.0) or from AppleWorks 6?

[TSGal]

Bento 2 can import Excel XLSX and XLS files.

Bento 2 cannot import AppleWorks 6 files directly. However, in AppleWorks 6, if you save as text, Bento can import that text file (tab-separated).

TSGal
FileMaker, Inc.

[rcr1]

Assume in your example, that the original Excel list had contained actual quantities purchased by each customer (not just x's).
Would Bento automatically import that history of quantities purchased, or would the user need to re-enter it manually after linking the FanList and Merchandise databases in Bento?
My point being, if the purchase history spanned several years and thousands of transactions, the manual method would be prohibitive.

[rex132001]

Bento 2 was launched October 2008
When do you imagine we will see Bento 3
I wonder because between Bento 1 and Bento 2 only took about 1 year.
What do you think? Buy now or wait a bit?
Thank you