Database programs I use

Summary: I think everybody needs a database to keep track of all the bits and pieces in their lives. I use iData 3, FileMaker Pro, AppleWorks and Yojimbo.

A database is a file, a container for storing information in a structured form so that it can be easily sorted, searched, organized and printed. It's created by a database program. A typical (nondigital) database is a Rolodex card file. Each card is a record and may contain fields corresponding to Name, Address, Phone, etc. Another example is a stack of 3x5 recipe cards.

Special Purpose Many applications are database programs in disguise, such as

• Quicken and Turbotax for finance and taxes
• Reunion for genealogy
• Yum and MacGourmet for recipes
• Apple's Address Book
• Books for your library
• MacTracker for Mac hardware.

They're "hard-wired". You can't change the structure or add or rename fields.

High End These offer a lot of flexibility in the the design of databases. Filemaker Pro ($299) is the premiere database for the Mac. It’s a traditional database program. Each database is a separate file and is structured with records and fields. It’s relational, which means some fields can be shared between different databases. E.g. a customer’s account can be shared with an invoice database. You can have any number of layouts for display and printing. Filemaker Pro is very flexible and programmable, but has a steep learning curve and is expensive. I bought version 5.5 several years ago, but haven’t upgraded since Filemaker wants full price for the current version and it's more than I need for my modest uses. I don’t have it, but another high-end database program for the Mac is Panorama ($299). NeoOffice, a free office suite, includes a database module. I looked at it briefly but couldn’t figure out how to use it.

AppleWorks is the little brother to Filemaker Pro. It's not relational and is missing other high-end features, but is easy to use. Until a few years ago it came free, as part of the AppleWorks suite, with new Macs. It still runs under Leopard but it shows it's age. It's a “Carbon” programs, an OS 9 program that has been modified to work under OS X. “Cocoa” programs, on the other hand, are built from the ground up for OS X and take advantage of it’s features. It’s a shame that Apple let AppleWorks languish and that a Cocoa version was never produced. Bento ($49), from Filemaker, is an attempt to address the home market with an inexpensive, easy to use database program. In my view, it’s no substitute for the AppleWorks database module. See below for more on Bento.

Simple Database Programs There are a lot of database programs that don’t have the flexibility of the high-end, yet are quite useful. iData 3 ($70), which I reviewed in February 2008, uses separate database files and can either be field-based or freeform. It has flexible label and envelope printing. It's simple, but quite useful. I use it a lot, mostly in the free-form mode with just one big field. I have files for auto repair records, home inventory, recipes, song lyrics, software purchases and serial numbers, a daily journal, and various projects. Recently iData Partners has released iData Lite that is the same as iData 3 except that it supports only plain text but costs only$30.

SBook is a unique little program, similar to iData 3 in many ways. It’s no longer supported, although you may be able find it. It’s free. Read more about it on Garfinkel’s blog http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/garfinkel/tags/apple/

Yojimbo ($39) is an inexpensive information organizer. It's similar to iData 3 in many ways except everything is stored in a single database file, however, you can organize your database records into collections. It’s main draw is you can store complete web pages, PDF documents and images along with text.

Bento, a first look

Bento, published by Filemaker is a traditional database program using the iPhoto-iWeb-iTunes model. You can create multiple databases (called libraries) but they’re all stored in a single file and displayed in a sidebar like playlists, iMovie projects or photo albums. It’s all or nothing. You can’t share a Bento database with another user. Out of the box Bento links and synchronizes to Apple’s Address Book and iCal data files and these appear in the sidebar as libraries. Changes to addresses and calendar events in Bento are reflected in Address Book and iCal and vice versa. Bento uses “Collections”, a subset of records from a database, similar to groups in Address Book.

Like Filemaker Pro, Bento is a field-based, relational database that can link fields in different databases. There are 20 colorful templates in true Apple eye-candy fashion to get you started, but you can build your own database structures. It imports and export as comma separated values, CSV, in contrast to Apple’s historical use of tab separated values. Save a spreadsheet as CSV and import it into Bento where the columns become fields and rows are records.

Although published by the same company, Bento does not directly import Filemaker Pro database files, only (CSV) text files. I exported several Filemaker Pro databases -- recipes, auto records and house inventory -- as CSV and imported them into Bento. It went smoothly...... almost. Where I had fields with text separated by carriage returns, such as a recipe ingredient list, Bento ignored the carriage returns and ran everything together. My inventory database has a field that calculates the age of the item (current date minus purchase date) and displays it as years. Bento also supports calculations, but only displayed the results in weeks, days, minutes and seconds - not too useful.

Printing is inflexible. My Filemaker recipe database has a layout to print four 4x6 recipe cards on a page. There's no way to print that in Bento. You can print a single record in Bento, but I couldn't find a way to turn off the field labels, making the layout very inefficient. It doesn’t print labels. To print address labels you must use Address Book. The program is a resource hog and runs only under Leopard.

In short, Bento is big on eye candy, but smaller on usefulness, speed, and compatibility. It's version 1.0 so maybe they'll learn and fix the shortcomings. Bento, $49, is now at version 3.0. I don't have this version so I can't comment on it.