Mac Apps: Bento

I'd heard about Bento many times; from my MacWorld magazine to online reviews, I'd heard quite a few positive things about it. What is Bento? Well, it's hard to say, really. It's a database. It's an organizational tool. It's a really sweet app. But what can it do for you? Let me see if I can help with that.

First, Bento interfaces seamlessly with iCal and Address Book, basically removing the need to have those two open at any time. When you add or edit something in Bento from iCal or Address Book, it changes it in those apps. Bento stores information, like any other database, in a spreadsheet-like table, and displays it in a form. However, unlike Microsoft's Access, you can work in the form, dragging and dropping fields and data, and Bento creates and fills out the forms for you.

Bento comes with templates for many things, from Project organization and To Do items to Events, Files, Home or Business Inventory, Time Billing, Exercise Log, Vehicle Maintenance, Items for Sale and many others. Bento is an excellent organizational tool for Mac users, and not priced badly at $49. There is a free demo that can be downloaded HERE.