Less than a year after the January debut of the personal database app Bento, FileMaker has delivered Bento 2, spiffed up with enhancements current users should welcome.

I wrote a blog post about Bento in May when I stumbled upon it while trying to answer a reader’s question about whether an affordable Mac OS X database program for home users existed. Bento fills the hole left when Apple discontinued the AppleWorks software suite, which had included a database module.

Bento 2 retains the look and feel of an Apple-made app such as those in iLife and iWork while finding even more ways to closely integrate with Apple software --something one would expect from a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple.

Those who liked Bento’s integration with iCal and Address Book will like how Mail works with Bento 2. If you create a Mail message field, you can drag relevant emails directly into the Form View of the record. A Quick View button allows you to read the message without going into the Mail app itself.

While the first version of Bento automatically imported data from the user’s Address Book and iCal apps, getting data from older database files wasn’t so easy. Bento 1 could read comma-delimited files (.csv), but people with old AppleWorks 6 databases could not export in .csv. (I used Microsoft Excel as an intermediary.)

Bento 2 solves that by allowing users to save AppleWorks 6 database files in as ASCII format with a .tsv extension, which allows Bento to import it. I initially had trouble getting this to work, but eventually figured out that the .tsv extension needs to be in lower, not upper case. The ability to import AppleWorks DB files directly would be better, but this is a major improvement.

Bento 2 can import and export files directly from spreadsheet apps like Excel and Apple’s Numbers, however.

The new version also addresses my biggest gripe about Bento 1 – its inability to print more than one record on a sheet of paper in Form View. When using Table View, the new “Fit to Width” option, while not perfect, leaves your squeezed information more readable than “Fit to Page” did in Bento 1.

Data entry gets a few nice wrinkles, such as more spreadsheet-like behavior. For example, you no longer need to set up your fields in advance; you can just start typing information and Bento adds generically named fields as needed.

Another handy spreadsheet-like feature: the ability to grab the lower right handle of a data field and dragging it down will duplicate the original field’s data for as many cells as you drag the handle.

FileMaker has also made working with data easier, primarily with the addition of a split view that shows a list of all the records on top with the details of the selected record below.

As one would expect, FileMaker added to its collection of attractive Form templates (Bento 2 adds 10 new ones), but more importantly users can export and share those templates now. So if a person has created the ultimate template for stamp collecting, he or she can share it with other Bento-using philatelists.

However, if you have a great Bento library containing every fact and statistic regarding your daughter’s soccer team, you can’t share it. Well, not as a Bento file at least. You always can export it as an Excel spreadsheet, but your information won’t have the flair of Bento’s Form View.

FileMaker deserves accolades for upgrading this product so quickly and for adding truly useful features rather than flashy but impractical ones. It remains the best Mac OS X personal database option for home users and small businesses.

System requirements
Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4
Mac with Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 867MHz or faster processor
512 MB RAM
1 GB hard drive space recommended

Pricing
Single user, $49; Family pack (5 licenses), $99. Purchasers of Bento 1 between Sept. 14 and Oct. 28 are entitled to a free upgrade. A 30-day trial version of the software can be downloaded from FileMaker’s Web site.