Bueno Bento

The new Bento program from Filemaker makes it easy for Mac users to create and manage personal databases.

Simply select one of the pre-formatted templates and begin entering data for projects, contacts, events, home inventory, items for sale, and more. Bento templates are already designed and include the fields the programmers think you’re likely to use. Some fields link to iCal so that you can enter events and tasks in Bento and later see them in iCal. The templates are also easy to customize. You can change the “theme” to pick a new color and/or type style, add data fields, select number of columns, or completely rearrange your layout. By adding fields and customizing your layout, you can get much of the power of a more traditional (and expensive) database program for a fraction of the time and cost. Bento is just $49.