Database 101 and Bento

Abstract

SPREADSHEETS are good at some things but bad at others. They are good at all things related to math and money. For example, a spreadsheet is the ideal application to use to create a customized grade book. On the other hand, spreadsheets are poor at sorting or displaying information in different ways. The trouble with spreadsheets is that, unless you are very careful, sorting a column does not sort all the other information in the row. Thus if you want to sort the students by their final grade in your customized grade book, you could end up just sorting the final grade column, which would disassociate the grades from the students. If you have a lot of information in a spreadsheet but do not use a lot of the math functions, there is a good chance that you would be better off putting the information in a database. One of the strengths of a database--technically, it is database management software--is the ability to sort the information in various ways. Another strength is the ability to view or print a single record, for example, all the grades an individual student has received. You can do this with a spreadsheet by setting the print range to a single row, but you would have to do this individually for each student, which would be very time-consuming. In a database, you just print all records individually or custom design reports. Another strength of modern databases is the ability to place such media as pictures, sounds, and video into the database. For example, if you had a database of students, you could include pictures in each student's record. FileMaker, a subsidiary of Apple, makes the highly regarded database management program called, appropriately, FileMaker 9. This capable database is available for Macs, PCs, and multi-user file servers. FileMaker 9 can manage enough data to meet the needs of a fairly large school district. One of FileMaker 9's strengths is its ability to retrieve and use up-to-the-minute information, such as news feeds and weather maps. Another strength of FileMaker is its ability to almost effortlessly display data dynamically on Web pages that it can create for you. But alas, FileMaker's $300 price tag is probably too steep for many Kappan readers. However, not long ago FileMaker released Bento 1 for $50. Bento 1 is an easy-to-use database for Macs running OS 10.5, Leopard. Currently, Bento 1 is the only version available, and it does require Leopard. Before I discuss Bento, I need to go over some database terminology. In Bento, information is stored in fields, which are part of a record, which is part of a collection, which is part of a library. For example, a person's last name would be one field, and all the fields containing information on a person constitute a record. All the people in a group make up a collection. Various collections make up a library. In most other databases, a library is called a database. And some database software allows you to subdivide your information into many more levels. The basic increment of a database is a record. Records can be likened to spreadsheet rows. An advantage of Bento, and most other databases, is the ability to display records in two ways: a view, which is like a spreadsheet, or a view. In form view, all the information in a record is displayed on a single screen or printed on a single page. If you have a media field--for example, a field with a person's photograph--you can display it in form view, but not in table view. Another advantage of form view is that it gives you plenty of room on a screen or page to display the information in various ways. If you get too many columns in a spreadsheet, the rows wrap across several pages. Another nice feature of Bento is that it comes with 24 templates for libraries, organized into Education, Personal, and Work. These templates work much like those that come with such presentation software as PowerPoint or Keynote. In the Education category, there are templates for Projects, Classes, Files, Contacts, To Do Items, Events, Digital Media, Student List, Membership List, and Notes. …