Can I import from Bento?
 

Since Bento is being discontinued, I'm experimenting to see if I can export some Bento libraries - inventory lists - into OO4.

Bento lets me export its data to comma or tab separated files, but I can't seem to figure out how to get that data - or any spreadsheet data - into an OO4 outline (with columns) except manually.

Is there a way?

FWIW, Tap Forms imports Bento databases.

Thanks - I'd still rather get everything into OO, but I'll look into it.

This is an interesting thought. With Bento being abandoned, expanding the omni-ouliner use case to a list manager for some Bento users. You'd have to add the ability to import and the ability to Filter columns. But it would make OO far more valuable than it already is.

Filtering is my biggest hope for OmniOutliner. The flexibility that would give us would extend the app's usefulness to me in so many ways.

[QUOTE=rogbar;129259]Since Bento is being discontinued, I'm experimenting to see if I can export some Bento libraries - inventory lists - into OO4.

Bento lets me export its data to comma or tab separated files, but I can't seem to figure out how to get that data - or any spreadsheet data - into an OO4 outline (with columns) except manually.

Is there a way?[/QUOTE]

OO will import tab separated text files. Are you unable to import it at all, or is it not doing what you expect?

Hi Derek,

I am unable to import it at all. Here's what I did:

I exported a small Bento file to a tab-separated file, called Test.tab. If I double-click on this file, it will open in Numbers as a spreadsheet (as will the .csv file I created from the same Bento file).

When I open OO4, there is no option for import. So I use the Open command, and navigate to the folder where my Bento exports are (where only the .tab is available; the .csv is grayed out.) So I select the .tab file and get this error message:

The document "test.tab" could not be opened. OmniOutliner cannot open files of this type."

Am I doing something wrong?

Ah, try changing the extension to .txt

That did it. Thanks.

One question: the field that came across as the "Topic" column" is not one I'm interested in keeping. How can I make another column the "Topic" and delete the one OO4 currently thinks is the Topic?

That won't be so easy. You can edit the XML of the document to change the outline column but there's no way to do that through the app. Could probably be scripted but it still wouldn't be fast or easily batch processed.