Cry, PC users — this application is only for the Mac. Cry, Mac users, if you're not using Leopard. Bento takes advantage of Apple's Core OS Architectural Layer and Core Services. FileMaker Pro is the robust professional database application at the hefty price of $299, but Bento is for the rest of us at $49 (personal or small business use). It is the database that replaces AppleWorks, IMO. FileMaker is a subsidiary of Apple Inc., which explains why it has the look and feel of Apple's iWork and iLife applications, making the learning curve almost trivial.

It does take time, though, to get familiar with all its features and to design your forms, but there are 20 templates to choose from, and you can start entering your data in minutes. Bento offers several library templates designed for home, education, or work. The business templates are for billing, event planning, contacts, expenses and more. I used the event planning template to track the participants, the location, invitation, and contact information for a chartered bus trip I am organizing.

The time billing template allows you to export the data into a CSV format (i.e., Excel) and easily generate invoices. The personal category templates include an exercise log, vehicle maintenance forms, to-do items, and more. Customizing your database with Bento is its strongest feature. It's as simple as drag and drop in Form View, which shows one record at a time. To delete a field simply drag it out of a window, and it disappears in a puff of smoke. You can also easily resize, align, and rearrange the fields. You can create new databases (Libraries) from scratch or import them from CSV (comma-separated value) files with a simple drag and drop.

On first launch Bento imports any data you have in iCal and Address Book, saving you a lot of time. Any contact changes in Bento's Libray will also show in your Address Book application and vice versa. This also works with changes in events or tasks on your iCal Library. If for some reason you don't want Bento to display your iCal or Address Book in the source list simply open up the Home dialog menu and disconnect them. The data stored in Address Book and iCal do not disappear, they just don't appear in Bento.

It also seamlessly integrates with other Apple programs such as iLife and iWork.

Bento offers more than mere data storage and management. You can include media files such as photos and video, hot links to Web sites and to related files on your hard drive such as Microsoft Word documents. These features take it beyond a simple spreadsheet.

There is lots of support for Bento at the FileMaker website. You'll also find tutorials under the Help menu like the Bento User's Guide, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Service and Support.

I find the automatic save for every change made in the database disconcerting. It works fine but I would prefer a Save function. Bento also lacks an option for printing multiple records on one sheet of paper.

Bento is named after the Japanese lunch box.