Hello, my name is Mitch Wagner, and I'm addicted to productivity tools. I find nothing quite so satisfying as organizing my to-do list and downloading new productivity software. Prioritizing my work is ever so much nicer than actually doing it.

So I was very excited to learn that Apple's Filemaker business unit is releasing Bento, a personal-productivity app and database for Mac OS X Leopard. The software -- named for a kind of Japanese box meal served on a compartmentalized tray -- is designed for any work where a lightweight, easy-to-use, desktop database can be a worthwhile tool: Homeowners can use it to record their possessions and collections, micro-businesses can use it to manage their inventories, and everyone can use it for individual project management.

Bento's GUI will be familiar to iTunes users, with a source list at the left, the work area in the center, and a list of fields on the right, which can be added to the current work area.
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Bento is now in public, feature-complete beta -- you can download Bento it and use it for free until the product ships in January, when it will be priced at $49.99. It requires Mac OSX Leopard.

I've been playing with Bento since its public release Tuesday. I found it to be a powerful, versatile, easy-to-use single-user desktop database . Moreover, although it's still in preview mode, it's stable and feature-rich enough to use in production. However, it's not so easy to use that it's self-documenting -- if you want to get any real value from it, you have to read the documentation.

Getting To Know You
Bento includes a user guide and links to the Bento Web site, where you can view four instructional videos, totaling about 13 minutes. This includes an introductory video, which plays when you first start the program. The videos do a good job of explaining Bento's functionality, getting you to the point where you can start working and learning about Bento on your own.

The user interface is inspired by iTunes (which Apple is using as the model for the UI for many of its applications, including the Leopard Finder). Bento uses a three-panel display: On the left is a narrow column called "Sources" which contains a list of Libraries and Collections (more on those in a moment). In the center is a broad area containing the current collection or record you're working on. And on the right is a narrow column containing a list of fields that you can drag to the center to customize your database. These fields include text fields, numbers, drop-down multiple choice boxes whose values you create yourself, times, dates, currency, e-mail addresses, IM addresses, and on and on and on.

Bento's method of classifying your data can be confusing until you get used to it. A Library is a set of data relating to a particular activity, such as managing contacts or tracking projects; Bento can contain multiple libraries. A Collection, meanwhile, is a subset of library records, sort of like a playlist in iTunes, group in Address Book, or album in iPhoto. For example, you could create a Library that consists of an inventory of all the contents of your home, and Collections breaking up your possessions by room, or by type -- furniture, clothing, appliances, and so on. As with iTunes playlists, individual records can appear in multiple collections; a collection is a filter to sort your library.

The smallest item of information in Bento is the individual record. You can delete fields from a record, re-arrange them by dragging and dropping, or create new fields using a simple wizard. Bento lets you search through records using text strings, or by fine-tuning with complex search parameters -- you can search on the values of any field in the database.