(Archived) Data from Bento to Evernote on a Mac?

[soundsliketree 1]

With Bento's death rattle echoing in my ears, I'm dipping my feet into the world of Evernote and quite pleased so far... but is there a way to (easily) import my Bento Libraries/Records into Evernote as Notebooks/Notes?  Even just dumping all of my Bento records into a single "Bento" notebook would be better than a laborious copy/paste process of hundreds of records>>>notes.

 

I'm a premium user on  a mac.  I tried the live chat last night only to learn that .html and evernote's own format are the only import options (or so my agent told me). 

 

I couldn't find a way in Bento to make .html export happen - only numbers/excell/CSV...  

I've been trying find a way to split the Bento-exported CSV file(s) into individual text files that correspond to the original records... but this isn't going too well either.

 

Can anyone offer any ideas? 

I figured there would be more folks with my issue since Bento is dying and Evernote seems like a logical replacement in many ways...  but I couldn't find much online.  (The Evernote chat agent didn't even know what Bento was, believe it or not.)

 

Any help would be much appreciated...

Thanks!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

With Bento's death rattle echoing in my ears, I'm dipping my feet into the world of Evernote and quite pleased so far... but is there a way to (easily) import my Bento Libraries/Records into Evernote as Notebooks/Notes?  Even just dumping all of my Bento records into a single "Bento" notebook would be better than a laborious copy/paste process of hundreds of records>>>notes.

 

I'm a premium user on  a mac.  I tried the live chat last night only to learn that .html and evernote's own format are the only import options (or so my agent told me). 

 

I couldn't find a way in Bento to make .html export happen - only numbers/excell/CSV...  

I've been trying find a way to split the Bento-exported CSV file(s) into individual text files that correspond to the original records... but this isn't going too well either.

 

Can anyone offer any ideas? 

I figured there would be more folks with my issue since Bento is dying and Evernote seems like a logical replacement in many ways...  but I couldn't find much online.  (The Evernote chat agent didn't even know what Bento was, believe it or not.)

 

Any help would be much appreciated...

Thanks!

 

Welcome to the forums. I have no idea. I actually avoided investing in Bento in the first place because I saw no easy way out of it. How about an upgrade to FileMaker Pro (maybe a free trial period), and import of your data, and then an export as html (assuming it has this capability). 

 

Alternatively, export as an Excel file, save that as a web file, and then import it. Whatever you do, it will be ugly, but it will be serviceable.

[soundsliketree 1]

Thanks for the welcome and the tips. Those are two promising workaround possibilities. I will explore...

Cheers!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Thanks for the welcome and the tips. Those are two promising workaround possibilities. I will explore...

Cheers!

 

Glad I could help. Please do come back and let us know how it goes. I am sure there are many Bento users who could benefit from your experiences. 

 

In addition, if everything falls through, one option would be DevonThink. It can index your Evernote and Bento (I think) data so that you can use it for working through the two formats with a single search. Eventually, you'll probably want your data into Evernote to take full advantage of the service, but it is a nice measure for the interim.

[soundsliketree 1]

Well, both of your promising suggestions have run into snags.  The FMP "import from Bento" option isn't working due to some strange "what you are trying to import is created in a later version" error (when the FMP I have was freshly downloaded from their site.  And it turns out I don't have a working copy of Excel any longer (and Numbers doesn't do .html export).  I'll see what I can do.  

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Well, both of your promising suggestions have run into snags.  The FMP "import from Bento" option isn't working due to some strange "what you are trying to import is created in a later version" error (when the FMP I have was freshly downloaded from their site.  And it turns out I don't have a working copy of Excel any longer (and Numbers doesn't do .html export).  I'll see what I can do.  

 

It's frustrating, I imagine. Thanks for keeping us updated. Let's hope you come across a solution! 

[George Goodman 10]

FYI, I found this on Filemaker's site at http://info.filemaker.com/FMP_overview.html

 

Options for Bento users

If you are using Bento, it may continue to meet your needs for a long time. If and when you decide to export your data from Bento to another application, we have helpful information about your options:

Can I move my data from Bento to FileMaker Pro?

Yes, you can. The Bento 4 to FileMaker Pro Migration Tool is the recommended tool to use when moving from Bento 4 for Mac to FileMaker Pro.

It converts your existing Bento 4 for Mac data (including the contents of media fields and form designs) into a FileMaker Pro 12 database. There are some limitations so please review the Bento 4 to FileMaker Pro Migration Tool PDF prior to migrating.

Can I export Bento data into programs other than FileMaker Pro?

Bento 4 for Mac can export data into a .csv, .tab, Numbers, or Excel 2008 file from a library, from a collection, from a Smart Collection, or from the results of a search or Advanced Find.   Learn more › 

Customers using Bento 4 for iPad can email the data in a library or collection as a comma-separated values (.csv) file attachment. You can then open the attachment to import the data to other applications.   Learn more ›

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

 

FYI, I found this on Filemaker's site at http://info.filemaker.com/FMP_overview.html

 

Options for Bento users

If you are using Bento, it may continue to meet your needs for a long time. If and when you decide to export your data from Bento to another application, we have helpful information about your options:

Can I move my data from Bento to FileMaker Pro?

Yes, you can. The Bento 4 to FileMaker Pro Migration Tool is the recommended tool to use when moving from Bento 4 for Mac to FileMaker Pro.

It converts your existing Bento 4 for Mac data (including the contents of media fields and form designs) into a FileMaker Pro 12 database. There are some limitations so please review the Bento 4 to FileMaker Pro Migration Tool PDF prior to migrating.

Can I export Bento data into programs other than FileMaker Pro?

Bento 4 for Mac can export data into a .csv, .tab, Numbers, or Excel 2008 file from a library, from a collection, from a Smart Collection, or from the results of a search or Advanced Find.   Learn more › 

Customers using Bento 4 for iPad can email the data in a library or collection as a comma-separated values (.csv) file attachment. You can then open the attachment to import the data to other applications.   Learn more ›

 

 

Hi. George. Thanks! My understanding, though, is that users don't want there information trapped in .csv or .xls. Of course, saving as .txt from those file types will make it easy to paste into Evernote, but it will just be a jumble of data. I am guessing that in most cases it will be best (though not ideal) to save the .xls files as .html. This will preserve whatever layout there might be. Obviously, it will depend on the kind of data with which you are working.

[soundsliketree 1]

Thanks for the tip.  Using that tool I was able to import a bento library into FMP (looks like libraries must be imported individually).  At that point I was able to export the library from FMP as an .html table (a single file).  I was then able to import into Evernote as one humongous table.  It is certainly better than a confusing .csv file viewed as plaintext, and I can use the find feature in Evernote to tunnel into the table... but it's not quite what I was looking for - which is the ability to have each individual record transform into its own Evernote note.

 

At the moment it seems the shortcomings of this process are:

• FMP doesn't have the ability to export as .html with a multi-file structure (as opposed to a single table)

• Evernote doesn't have the ability to import spreadsheet or table file formats and parse them into individual notes

 

If I am incorrect about either of the above points I would love to learn differently.

If anyone can think of any other things to try that would also be appreciated.

 

If nothing else, at least the data can be brought in!

Thanks for all the help, y'all.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Thanks for the tip.  Using that tool I was able to import a bento library into FMP (looks like libraries must be imported individually).  At that point I was able to export the library from FMP as an .html table (a single file).  I was then able to import into Evernote as one humongous table.  It is certainly better than a confusing .csv file viewed as plaintext, and I can use the find feature in Evernote to tunnel into the table... but it's not quite what I was looking for - which is the ability to have each individual record transform into its own Evernote note.

 

At the moment it seems the shortcomings of this process are:

• FMP doesn't have the ability to export as .html with a multi-file structure (as opposed to a single table)

• Evernote doesn't have the ability to import spreadsheet or table file formats and parse them into individual notes

 

If I am incorrect about either of the above points I would love to learn differently.

If anyone can think of any other things to try that would also be appreciated.

 

If nothing else, at least the data can be brought in!

Thanks for all the help, y'all.

 

To the best of my knowledge, you have accomplished the transfer in the "best" way possible. Sorry. I'll be interested to hear if anyone has a better solution.