Bento

[tokyoblue]

I'm a Japanese to English translator and I'm very interested in building a vocabulary database. I work at a very large company and we are not capable of getting information off of our computers or accessing Internet sites like Google docs, so I am hoping to build the database on my iPhone.

All I basically need are a handful of basic fields:

Word or phrase in Japanese
Translation in English
Example sentence if necessary
Comment field

The database would need to be searchable by word in either Japanese or English, including partial matches if possible.

Does anyone know if Bento would be something capable of handling this? I am particularly interested in Bento because I use a Mac at home and would like something that has a desktop companion so I'm not tied to the iPhone completely.

 

[Indydenny]

Yes

Yes, Bento will do that. I use if for the same, only for Hebrew.

Works well and syncs quickly.

 

[tokyoblue]

Thanks! That's great news!

 

[mrbass]

Bento is decent and yes quickest sync. However, it's very slow to open say 500KB database about 15 seconds. Searching is limited to first two fields. There are other databases like TapForms or Handbase for instance that search all fields. So for small amounts of data then yes Bento might just fit the bill as the new Bento 3 is pretty nice.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

This post prompted me to go ponder Bento - but i've hit a few limitations that won't work for me.

Bento will only sync with one Touch/iPhone, and apparently the Smart Collection i was using won't work. Those 2 kinda muck up all my plans for a school assignment schedule.

I wanted to send the assignments for the week to a child's Touch - and sync to mine to see what she has completed, and what i need to grade.

I already own TapForms, so i'm going to see what i can make work over there - the price is right (and it's on sale right now for $1.99 if anyone is wondering!).

 

[mrbass]

Quick Overview of databases on iphone.

Appcreator $5 I say stay away ..stay far away you've been warned.
Bento is $5 but really need $50 Bento 3 for Mac to use it for synch.
HanDbase is $10 and probably the best one for power users.
TapForms is $9 or it was but now $2 per your post. Recently they added web browser upload and prior you had to use syncdocs.
My Stuff $5 and is decent for collection type stuff...although latest update I've had some crashing issues when attempting to choose field for subtitle.
StoreIt Pro $5 is another one to consider.