Do I have to read it?: You can start using RoboForm without reading this manual. RoboForm is intuitive enough for that. This manual is for advanced users who want to use all of RoboForm abilities to the max.

RoboForm Version: The manual applies to versions 5.0.3 and later. Please upgrade if you have an earlier version.

Passcards. RoboForm saves online passwords into what we call a Passcard. Once the password is saved, RoboForm will offer to fill it when you visit the login page again. Passcards also act rather like bookmarks: The Login command: (i) goes to the memorized login page, (ii) fills in the memorized login data and (iii) clicks the Login button.

Identities. RoboForm can also fill long non-password forms from your current personal profile that we call an Identity. You fill in your Identity once with all your personal data and then RoboForm will enter this data into web page forms for you.

SafeNotes. Finally you can store often used secret and non-secret text fragment in what we call a SafeNote. SafeNote provides safe storage for important passwords that are not automatically stored in Passcards and for other sensitive or often used information such as ATM passwords, lock key combinations and launch codes.

• Getting Started
  * Downloading and Installing AI RoboForm
  * RoboForm Controls
  * Does RoboForm work in My Browser?
  Best Integration:
   * IE 5.0, IE 5.5, IE 6,  * IE 4
  Good Integration (no toolbar):
   * AOL 5 to 8, MSN, MSN 8, Quicken, NetCaptor, BroadPage, MyIE, NeoPlanet, etc
  With Adapter:
   * Mozilla 1+, Netscape 7
  Not Supported:
   * Netscape 4  * Opera,  * Compuserve 7  * Mac  * MSN TV (WebTV)

• Passcards
  * Saving Online Form Data to Passcards
  * Filling Online Forms from Passcards
  * One-Click Login
  * Viewing and Managing Passcards
  * Basic Authentication

• Safenotes

• Identities
  * Creating, Editing and Managing Identities
  * Filling Personal Data from Identities
  * On the Meaning Of Fields and Tab Instances
  * International RoboFilling from Identities

• Password-Protecting Passcards and Identities
  * Personal Data Security in RoboForm

• Backup and Restore: Where Identities and Passcards are Stored

• Advanced Topics
  * Advanced Form Filling Techniques
  * Performance Tuning: Making RoboForm Leaner and Faster
  * Custom Fields and RoboForm Pro

• Password Generator

Getting Started

Downloading and Installing AI RoboForm

Start Download. Click the Download RoboForm link and a popup window will ask "Would you like to open the file or save it to your computer?" or "What would you like to do with this file?". In IE6 simply click Open. In IE5 and IE4 select "Run this program from its current location" and click OK.

Agree to Install RoboForm. Once the download finishes, another popup window will ask "Do you want to install and run AI RoboForm from www.roboform.com"? Click "Yes" and installation will begin.

Agree to the License Agreement. Read the License Agreement and agree to it.

RoboForm Program Files Location. This is where RoboForm will keep its program files. Note that only program files will be stored here, not your personal RoboForm data.

Close any Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer windows. The RoboForm installer will offer to close all Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer windows. Click "Yes" and the installer will do it for you. Alternatively you can close these windows manually.

Installation Complete. When you reach the "Installation Complete" dialog, leave the box "Yes, I am New to RoboForm" checked and click "Finish". Installation is complete at this point and the installer will start the RoboForm First Run automatically.

AI RoboForm Registration. If you are installing RoboForm for the first time, the Online Registration window will come up. Fill in your name, e-mail and click OK. This data is only requested once. It does not have to be the same as the data you put into Identities.

Create New Identity. If you have no Identities, RoboForm will offer to create a New Identity. Otherwise your current Identity will be shown. Please set the Country in your Identity correctly -- it affects the quality of form filling a lot. If your country is not listed, select Other Countries.

Enter Personal Data into Identity. Enter your personal data into your Identity and click OK.

Robo-Fill Test Form. After you have finished entering your personal data and clicked OK in the Identity Editor, RoboForm will open an Internet Explorer window with a test form in it. The RoboForm toolbar should be visible in this window.

Install, Uninstall, AutoUpdate FAQ.
More on install, uninstall, version upgrade, AutoUpdate.

RoboForm Controls

RoboForm Controls (enlarge)

AI RoboForm adds ToolBar, Explorer Bar, Context Menu Items, and Standard Toolbar Buttons to your browser. Only one of these controls is needed to control RoboForm -- you decide which one. You can hide the controls that you do not need.

1. ToolBar. Appears above the web page. Works in IE5 or later. Or click the "RF toolbar" button in Standard IE toolbar. Or select View. Toolbars. RoboForm in IE. The toolbar controls only the browser window in which it appears.
How can I customize the set of buttons in toolbar?
How do I make the RoboForm toolbar smaller?
Why is the RoboForm toolbar mixed up with Links or Radio toolbars?

2. Explorer Bar. This appears below the web page. It is good for IE4, and can be used in IE5. To show or hide it, select View. Explorer Bar. RoboForm in IE. The explorer bar controls only the browser window in which it appears. How can I customize the Explorer bar?

3. TaskBar Icon. Appears in Task Bar (System Tray). It is used:
* To make RoboForm work in non-IE browsers that are based on IE (AOL, MSN, NetCaptor, Compuserve, etc).
* To temporarily disable AutoFill and AutoSave by closing the RoboForm TaskBar icon, if in "Options. Other" you check "AutoFill and AutoSave disabled when TaskBar not visible".
* To gain easy access to Passcard/Safenote list and to RoboForm functions.
** You can disable the TaskBar icon by going to the Other tab of Options dialog and unchecking "Start RoboForm TaskBar Icon when Windows is started".

4. Web Page Context Menu. This appears inside web page when you right-click it. Works in all browsers. How do I customize (get rid of) RoboForm context menu items?

5. Standard IE Toolbar Buttons. This appears in your standard IE toolbar. These buttons can be used to control RoboForm but we recommend using the RoboForm toolbar or Explorer bar. They are more convenient because RoboForm is not allowed to have pull-downs in the standard IE buttons. How do I customize RoboForm buttons in the Standard IE toolbar?

Custom RoboForm Toolbar (enlarge)

More Controls Customization.
Customizing RoboForm Toolbar, Explorer Bar and Context Menu. This is an example of what you can achieve with customization.

Does RoboForm work in my browser?

RoboForm runs on Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP (all 32-bit versions).

Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0

Internet Explorer 4.0

AOL 5 to 8, MSN, MSN 8, Quicken, NetCaptor, BroadPage, MyIE, Crazy Browser, NeoPlanet, other browsers based on IE

Requirements.
* RoboForm TaskBar Icon must be present for RoboForm to work with these browsers.
* Microsoft Active Accessibility is required. Run AA Installer if RoboForm asks for it.

No Toolbars and Standard Buttons.
* The RoboForm toolbar, Explorer bar, and standard toolbar buttons are not available. These browsers simply do not allow third party toolbars and buttons.

AOL browser only: Native windows vs Internet windows.
The AOL browser has two kinds of windows:
* AOL Native window. This is a fixed-size window that cannot be maximized. You will not be able to use RoboForm to fill forms in such windows, because it is not an HTML browser window.
* AOL Internet window. This is a variable-size window that can be maximized. These windows have a context menu and they are true HTML browser windows. RoboForm works in such windows.

MSN Explorer only: Hiding in the TaskBar icon.
When you close an MSN Explorer window, it does not really close -- it appears as a TaskBar (System Tray) icon. When MSN Explorer is in this state, it blocks RoboForm, so you have to fully close MSN Explorer before installing or uninstalling RoboForm. This can be done by right-clicking its TaskBar icon and selecting "Exit MSN".

Quicken.
You can use RoboForm to fill your bank passwords in Quicken. Click "Full Browser" button on top of Quicken screen and then Quicken will use full IE browser to which RoboForm can attach.

Netscape 7 and Mozilla 1+

How To Install.
* Install Netscape 7+ or Mozilla 1+.
* Install AI RoboForm from AiRoboForm.exe.
* Close *all* Mozilla and Netscape browser windows.
Netscape 7 installs Quick Launch icon on Windows TaskBar. Close this icon too.
* Install the RoboForm Adapter for Netscape7/Mozilla from AiRoboForm-Netscape-Adapter.exe.

What Works and What Does Not. In Netscape 7 and Mozilla versions of RoboForm everything works except:
* RoboForm Toolbar in browser does not have pulldown buttons. The Passcards and Identities buttons call Passcard and Identity Editors instead.
* Basic Authentication passcards do not work.

Compuserve 7

Netscape 4

Opera

Macintosh browsers

MSN TV (WebTV) browser

Passcards

Use Passcards to store form data that is specific to the web site that you visit, data such as User IDs, Passwords, Magazine Surveys, etc. You can save any form data to Passcards and use it to robo-fill a form later.

Saving Online Form Data to Passcards

AutoSave Dialog

1. AutoSave Forms to Passcard.
When you click the Login (Submit) button on a web form that contains login info RoboForm will offer to save this login info to a Passcard by displaying the AutoSave dialog.

Enter the new Passcard name into the dialog and click OK. If you have other Passcards already saved for this web site, their names will be shown in the list area below the Passcard Name. You can select one of these names and it will automatically appear in the Passcard Name field. If you try to save to the existing Passcard, you will be warned.

If you do not want RoboForm to display the AutoSave dialog anymore then click the Never button and select Do not AutoSave at All sites. You can re-enable AutoSave by clicking Fill Forms and selecting Unblock. Offer to AutoSave.

If you do not want AutoSave to pop up on any pages of a particular site, click the Never button and select Do not AutoSave at This site. This will create a Blocking Passcard; its name will have "-Blocked-" after the web site name. To unblock AutoSave for a web site, go to this site, click Save button on toolbar and click Unblock. Unlock AutoSave for This site.

2. Manually Save Forms to Passcard.
If the AutoSave dialog does not pop up for a web site then you can use the Save Forms command to save form data. Click the Save button on the RoboForm toolbar. The AutoSave dialog will come up. Enter the Passcard name and click OK. You can also invoke the "Save Forms" command by right-clicking the web page and selecting Save Forms.

Filling Form Data from Passcards

Small AutoFill Dialog

1. AutoFill forms from Passcard.
When you visit a web site for which you saved a Passcard, RoboForm will offer to fill in forms from Passcards saved for this site by displaying a pop up with the AutoFill dialog. Click Show All Passcards to display the entire list of passcards.

Select the Passcard you want to fill from, click the Fill Forms button or press the Enter key and forms will be filled from the selected Passcard. Click the "No" button or press the ESC key if you do not want to fill forms. You can also fill forms from Identity by selecting Identity before clicking Fill Forms.

If you want RoboForm not to pop up the AutoFill dialog then click the Never button and select Do Not AutoFill at All sites. To re-enable AutoFill, click the "Fill Forms" button, then the "Unblock" button and select Offer to AutoFill.

If you do not want AutoFill to pop up on any pages of a particular site, click Never and select the Do not AutoFill at This site. This will create a Blocking Passcard, its name will have "-Blocked-" after the web site name. To unblock AutoFill for a web site, go to this site, click Fill Forms and select Unblock. Unblock AutoFill for This site.

2. Manually fill forms from Passcards.
If the AutoFill dialog does not come up for some reason, you can call it up manually. Click the Fill Forms button on the RoboForm toolbar or right-click the web page and select Fill Forms. RoboForm then displays a list of Passcards that match the current web page; select one and click Fill Forms.

3. Fill Forms by Drag-And-Drop.
If the "Fill Forms" button does not fill forms from the passcard, you can drag-and-drop field values from the Passcard Editor to an online form. There are two ways to pick up a field in Passcard Editor:
- Start dragging the field by its drag and drop handle which is a picture of small suitcase,
- Select the field value or its part and then start dragging the selection.

4. Fill & Submit.
If you click Fill & Submit button, RoboForm will fill the form and then automatically submit it.

One-Click Login and Navigation

1. Login.
Click the Passcards button on RoboForm toolbar and select a Passcard.
RoboForm will perform the entire login sequence for you:
(i) Navigate your browser to the login page,
(ii) Fill the login info from passcard to the login form,
(iii) Click the Submit/Login button.

2. Go&Fill, GoTo.
Click the Passcards button in RoboForm toolbar, point a cursor to one of listed passcards and right-click it.
You will a list of commands that applies to the clicked Passcard:
Go&Fill commands performs the first two actions from the login sequence: navigate and fill.
GoTo command performs only the navigation action for passcard.

3. Fill Forms, Edit.
Fill Forms command fills forms from the selected passcard.
Edit command shows the selected passcard in Passcard Editor.

More Info.
* Passcard Security and Protection
* Backup and Restore Passcards and Identities
* Frequently Asked Questions about Passcards

Viewing and Managing Passcards

Passcard Editor (enlarge)

1. Passcard Editor.
To view the saved form data, use the Passcard Editor. To call it from the RoboForm toolbar, click the Passcards button and select Edit. To call it from the RoboForm TaskBar Icon, click it and select Passcards. Edit. Or you can select Start. Programs. AI RoboForm. Edit Passcards.

2. Login to (Fill from) Passcard.
Click the Login button in Passcard Editor and RoboForm will open a default browser window and log you into this passcard in this window.
Click the Fill Forms button and RoboForm will fill forms from this passcard in topmost browser window (window you viewed last).

3. Add/Delete a Note to Passcard.
Select View. Add Note in Passcard Editor and a multi-line "$Note$" field will be added to the Passcard. Put your comments for the passcard into this field. The information in the "$Note$" field is not used to fill forms.
Note can be deleted by selecting View. Delete Note.

4. Delete, Rename and Clone Passcards.
You can Delete, Rename and Clone passcards by clicking Passcard button and selecting the corresponding command. You can also invoke Delete command by clicking on the "Cross" button on Editor Toolbar.

5. Print List of Passcards.
In Passcard Editor select Passcard. Print List. A dialog appears that previews the printed list of Passcards. You can click the Print button to print what you see or click Save to save it to an HTML file.

Basic Authentication

Basic Authentication Dialog (enlarge)

Basic Authentication is an old user authentication mechanism that is used only by a few sites now. It is also used to memorize Network Disk password in Windows XP.

Manual Fill and Save.
To save a passcard from BasicAuth dialog, select Save Forms from RoboForm TaskBar context menu. To fill BasicAuth dialog from passcards, select Fill Forms from RoboForm TaskBar context menu.

Limitations.
RoboForm fully supports this form of authentication. BasicAuth dialogs cannot be filled from Identities, they can only be filled from Passcards.

SafeNotes

Use SafeNotes to store data that does not originate from HTML web forms which are automatically handled by RoboForm using Passcards. Examples of such data:
* UNIX telnet and rlogin passwords,
* ATM card passwords,
* Safe lock combinations.

1. SafeNote Editor.
All viewing and editing of SafeNotes is done in SafeNote Editor.
To open it, click RoboForm TaskBar icon and select Safenotes. Edit.

2. Create a New SafeNote.
Click the New button in SafeNote Editor.
Or click RoboForm TaskBar icon and select Safenotes. Edit.

3. Delete, Rename and Clone SafeNote.
You can Delete, Rename and Clone safenotes by clicking SafeNote button and selecting the corresponding command. You can also invoke Delete command by clicking on the "Cross" button on Editor Toolbar.

4. Print List of SafeNotes.
In SafeNote Editor select SafeNote. Print List. A dialog appears that previews the printed list of SafeNotes. You can click the Print button to print what you see or click Save to save it to an HTML file.

Identities

Identity Editor (enlarge)

RoboForm can also fill long non-password forms from your current personal profile that we call an Identity. You fill in your Identity once with all your personal data and then RoboForm will enter this data into web page forms for you. So Identity is a depositary for all your personal data used in form filling.

In our age of split identities and inquisitive web sites people prefer to have multiple identities: one for registering for free stuff, another for making real purchases on the web, one for yourself, one for your spouse, and so on.

Creating, Editing and Managing Identities

1. Use Identity Editor to edit personal data.
* To call it from the RoboForm toolbar, click the Identities button and select Edit.
* To call it from the RoboForm TaskBar Icon, click it and select Identities. Edit.
* Or you can select Start. Programs. AI RoboForm. Edit Identities.

Identity data is presented in several tabs. You can switch between tabs by clicking their headings. Each tan can have several instances. For example, each instance of Credit Card tab represents one credit card, so you can have more than one credit card in an Identity.

If you click the Close button then your changes will be saved and the Identity Editor will close.
If you click the "Diskette" button your changes will be saved. You need to save changes before the new values can be used in form filling.
If you close the Editor window by clicking "X" then you will be offered an option not to save changes.

New Identity Dialog (enlarge)

2. Create New Identity.
In the Identity Editor click the New button. RoboForm will ask for an Identity name and the country in which the new Identity resides. Or click Identity name in the RoboForm toolbar and select New.

It is important to enter the correct Country in the New Identity dialog because Identity field captions will be presented in the language used in this country and country-specific form filling rules will be used.

3. Tab Instances.
Fields in the Identity are grouped in tabs. So what you see at any given moment is one group of fields. When you click on another tab, you see another group of fields.

Each group (tab) can have many instances. That is, one Identity can have many Credit Cards, many Bank Accounts, many Locations, even many Persons.

Buttons that control instances are located under the button with current tab name on it. The "New" command creates a new instance of the tab. The "Delete" command deletes the currently shown instance of the tab. The "Rename" button renames the tab instance.

The first instance of the group is named "Main" and it cannot be deleted or renamed. This was done to maintain compatibility with old versions of RoboForm.

The "Current Instance" (that is the instance that you see now in Identity Editor) will be used in form filling. To change the Current Instance, open the Identity Editor and select another instance. The change of instance becomes effective immediately, there is no need to click Apply. You can also change instances from Fill Forms dialog.

4. Delete, Rename and Clone Identities.
You can Delete, Rename and Clone (Copy) Identities by clicking the Identity button in the Identity Editor and selecting Delete, Rename or Clone from the menu. You can also click the Current Identity name in the RoboForm toolbar and select these commands from the menu that appears.

5. Print List of Identities.
In the Identity Editor, select Identities. Print List. A dialog appears that previews the printed list of Identities. You can click the Print button to print what you see or click Save to save it to an HTML file.

Filling Personal Data from Identities

1. AutoFill Forms from Identity.
When your browser finishes downloading a web page that contains a long non-password form that RoboForm can fill, RoboForm will display a pop up with the AutoFill dialog. Select an Identity and Click Fill Forms or press Enter and forms will be filled from the selected Identity. Click the No button or press ESC if you do not want to fill forms on this page.

Changing AutoFill options and blocking AutoFill for certain sites is described in AutoFill from Passcards.

The Identity Editor may remain displayed when you are robo-filling forms. But remember that changes that you make in the Identity Editor become effective only after you save them.

2. Manually Fill Forms from Identity.
If you want to fill forms from an Identity without seeing the Fill Forms dialog first then click Identities button on RoboForm toolbar and select the Identity to fill forms from.

If you want to fill forms from the last used Identity, click the Fill Forms button pulldown on RoboForm toolbar and select "Fill Forms from id-name". You can also click the Fill Id button on RoboForm toolbar or The "Fill Id" button is not initially visible on the toolbar, but you can make it visible by customizing the toolbar. Double-click the toolbar to get to the customization dialog.

To fill form the last used Identity, you can also right-click the web page and select Fill From Identity. This menu item is not initially visible but you can make it visible by selecting "Customize This Menu" in the IE context menu and customizing the menu.

3. Drag-And-Drop Identity Fields to Online Form.
If Identity does not fill some fields automatically, you can drag-and-drop field values from the Identity Editor to the online form. There are two ways to pick up a field in Identity Editor:
- Start dragging the field by its drag-and-drop handle (which is a small picture of a suitcase),
- Select field value or its part and then start dragging the selection.

4. Set/Clear/Reset Fields.
* Fill Forms. Set Fields command sets all checkbox fields in a form or its selected fragment. This command also works on fields of other types. It puts the value of a custom field named "Set Fields Value" into all fields in the form or all selected fields. You can use it to fill several adjacent fields with one value.
* Fill Forms. Clear Fields command clears all fields. It clears all form fields or all selected fields.
* Fill Forms. Reset Fields command resets all fields or all selected fields to their default values (values that fields had when the page finished downloading). If all default field values are empty, it performs the same action as "Clear Fields".

5. Selective Form Filling (Pro Version Only).
If you want to fill only some fields on the web page (not all of them), then select (highlight) the part of the web page that you want to be filled and click "Fill Forms". RoboForm will fill only the fields that you have selected.

These commands apply only to a selection if one has been made:
* Fill Forms, Fill Ident, Fill Pass.
* Set Fields, Clear Fields, Reset Fields.
* Save Forms: only the forms from selected frames are saved.

More Info.
* Identity Security and Protection
* Backup and Restore Passcards and Identities
* Multiple Credit Cards and Addresses
* Frequently Asked Questions about Form Filling from Identities

On the Meaning of Identity Fields and Tab Instances

Identity is made of tabs. Every tab represents an object in real world. So Identity bundles together a bunch of related real world objects. All tabs can have multiple instances, each representing an object of the same kind.
The meaning of most Identity fields is obvious, here are some explanations for those that are not.

Person

Title is the same as Salutation.
Phone Numbers: the field after "x" is for Extension. Put it in if you have one. Home Phone is your default phone, so if the site simply asks for Phone without saying which one it is (Home or Work), RoboForm will put in your Home Phone. We assume that your Daytime Phone is same as your Work Phone and your Evening Phone is same as your Home Phone.
Income: put in an integer in dollars, do not use commas, dots or dollar/pound signs.
Driver License Number: do not use dashes or spaces.

Location

Address Line 1 contains House Number and Street Name.
If you use a PO Box, put the PO Box number into this line like so: "PO Box 10101".
Address Line 2 contains your Apartment Number like so: "Apt. 202".
Actually you can put whatever you want in both lines.
Zip 5+4: the last 4 digits of the Zip code are not required.
Moreover, some sites allow Zip codes only with 5 digits.

Credit Card

Credit Card Number: enter it without dashes or spaces.
Card Validation Code: this is a 3-digit number that is usually printed next to your signature. This is a new credit card verification feature that is requested fairly often by sites.
Card User Name should be in format "FirstName LastName", no Middle Initial is allowed.
Card Customer Service Phone is the 800 number of Customer Service of your Card Issuing Bank. Most sites do not need it.

Bank Account

Default Password

The User ID and Password fields are your *default* passwords. When you want to save an existing UserID/Password pair, use Passcards for this, do not put them into Identity. Put into Identity the default low-security UserID/Password pair that you would use for security-insensitive sites.
Password Question is the question that that sites ask you when you forget the password. Many sites allow you to define this question, hence the field. A common question is "What is your mother maiden name?"
Password Answer is your standard answer to the standard question above.

International RoboFilling from Identities

When you create a new RoboForm Identity you are asked what country (world region) you reside in. The country setting affects the language and presentation format of the Identity Editor. It also affects the selection of fields and their values available in Identity.

You can change the Country in which your Identity lives by selecting the country from the Country Etc. World Regions menu in the Identity Editor. If you cannot find your country in the displayed list of countries, select Country Etc. World Regions. Other.

When you have selected the World Region, select your country from the list of countries of this region. This list is available in the Country field of the Address tab. Please note that the list of countries in the "Country" field of the "Address" tab is limited to countries that belong to the World Region that you selected in the previous step.

RoboForm needs to know what country your identity is in, because:
* RoboForm respects the form filling traditions of your country. It knows the territorial units of your country, format of phone numbers, birth dates, post codes, and so on.
* All fields in the Identity window are marked with captions in the language that is most commonly used in your country.
* RoboForm fills out online forms in that language.

English Selection Values Option.
This option affects the way selection fields are filled when you use a non-English identity. If this option is On then English values are used when filling out fields that are presented as selections in Identity and as plain text fields in online form. If this option is Off then the value in the language local to your current identity is used.

Password-Protecting Passcards and Identities

If other people have access to your computer and you do not want them to view or use your Identities and Passcards, then you should protect them with a password.

1. Password-Protecting New Identities and Passcards.
New Identities and Passcards are not protected when they are created by default. We strongly recommend password-protecting Identities and Passcards that contain sensitive data such as user IDs, passwords or credit card numbers. You can ask RoboForm to protect all new Passcards by checking Password-Protect New Passcards in the "Options. User Data" dialog. Each new Identity has to be password-protected individually (see below).

2. View and Change the Password-Protection Status of Identity and Passcard.
To check whether a Passcard (Identity) is protected, display it in the Passcard (Identity) Editor. If its Yellow Lock icon is depressed, then this Passcard (Identity) is protected by a password, otherwise it is not protected. Also the Passcard (Identity) icons on RoboForm toolbar are yellow when a password-protected Passcard (Identity) is current.

To toggle the protection status of Passcard (Identity), click the Yellow Lock icon in the Editor or click the Current Passcard (Identity) name in the RoboForm toolbar and select Protected. RoboForm will request a Master Password if it had not been entered previously and this Passcard (Identity) file will be encrypted with the Master Password.

3. Master Password and Other Passwords.
If you need to view a protected Passcard or Identity or fill forms from it, RoboForm will ask you to enter the password that was used to encrypt this Passcard (Identity). Remember that if you forget this password, then nobody (not even us) will be able to open the protected Passcard (Identity).

To reduce the number of passwords that you need to remember to just one, RoboForm forces you to use the same password for all Passcards and Identities. This password is called the Master Password.
However, if you changed the Master Password in the past, or if you have imported Passcards from another computer then you might have Passcards protected by different passwords.

Request Master Password

RoboForm will ask you to enter the Master Password when it is needed to encrypt or decrypt a Passcard or Identity. If you do not protect Identities and Passcards then RoboForm will never ask for the Master Password.

When you enter your Master Password for the first time, you are effectively defining the new Master Password, so you will be asked to enter it twice for verification purposes. This is the time to memorize your new Master Password.

4. Password Caching.
Once you enter the Master Password (or any other password), it is cached in memory, so you do not need to reenter it over and over again. Passwords remain cached as long as RoboForm remains in memory.

You can force RoboForm to purge all cached passwords from memory by clicking the Logoff button on the toolbar or by clicking the Yellow Key button in the Passcards (Identities) Editor.

5. Password Auto-Logoff.
You can ask RoboForm to automatically purge all cached password after a period of inactivity. You can set this period in the "RoboForm. Options. User Data" dialog. RoboForm TaskBar icon must be visible in order for Auto-Logoff to work in all circumstances. TaskBar icon is the agent that will click the "Logoff" button for you.

By default it is set to 120 minutes. If you set it to zero then cached password will be purged in 15 seconds. It cannot be exactly zero because then you will never be able to use the GoFill or Login commands (the Master Password would be forgotten so fast that by the time GoFill or Login needs it, it would already have been purged).

6. Change Master Password.
If you decide to change your Master Password, you can do so by opening the Options dialog (select "RoboForm. Options" in the toolbar) and clicking "Set Master Password" in the "User Data" tab.

The "Set Master Password" command will change the password in every passcard and identity, so that you do not have to do it manually. It also has a radio button option to password-protect or password-unprotect all Passcards and Identities.

7. More Info.
* Frequently Asked Questions about Password Protection

Personal Data Security in RoboForm

The security of sensitive digital assets such as Identities and Passcards has several aspects:
1. Can the legitimate user change her confidential info and/or delete it from computer with no trace left?
2. Is backup and restore of confidential data available? Is it easy?
3. Can an unauthorized user who has obtained access to your computer (physically or via Internet) use your confidential data?

Here we compare approaches of other password management services to the RoboForm approach:

Internet Explorer AutoComplete.
1. It is not completely clear where IE keeps passwords memorized by AutoComplete. It is even less clear whether this information can be removed without a trace left.
2. Password info cannot be backed up and restored.
3. Anybody who has physical access to your computer can make IE "remember" your passwords by finding your sensitive sites in Favorites and History, visiting them and clicking Arrow Down key in the password fields.

Server-based Repositories: Passport, Magic Carpet.
1. You can be sure that you *cannot* delete any information from these servers, once they have it. Until recently Microsoft did not even have an option to delete an account. Now they have this option but how can you be sure that they really delete it? The truth is this: once your personal info leaves your computer, it is gone and it does not belong to you no matter what the vendor says -- it belongs to them.
2. Big servers are backed up, all right. However, these services may be discountinued or become paid-for at any time.
3. Microsoft software has numerous security holes and big servers are favorite hackers target, so we have a serious risk here. Hackers will attack big servers and steal info from them, they are less likely to attack personal computers like yours.

RoboForm.
1. RoboForm stores your personal info in a known place on your computer and nowhere else. Once you delete RoboForm User Data Folder, all your confidential data is gone with no trace left.
2. You can backup and restore RoboForm User Data Folder easily.
3. If you password-protect your Passcards and Identities, nobody will be able to read them. Even if a hacker manages to steal your Passcards from your computer, he will then have to crack the DES encryption used in your Passcards and Identities, and DES is nearly impossible to crack.

How to Maximize Personal Data Security in RoboForm.
If you want to achieve the maximum level of security, do this:
* Check "Password-Protect New Passcards" in the "Options. User Data" dialog.
* Make sure that all sensitive Passcards and Identities are password-protected. The Yellow Lock icons should be depressed, or the Protected menu item should be checked. Remember that anybody who can read files on your computer will be able to extract your sensitive info from any Passcard or Identity that is not password-protected -- so do password-protect them.
* When you leave your computer, click the "Logoff" button on the RoboForm toolbar so that all entered passwords are purged from memory.

Backup and Restore: Where Identities and Passcards are Stored

Find Your User Data Folder.
Select RoboForm. Folder. View in the RoboForm toolbar or Identity (Passcard). Folder. View in the Identity (Passcard) Editor. The folder containing User Data Folder will be shown in Windows Explorer.

Backup User Data.
Add RoboForm User Data Folder to the list of folders that you back up.
Or you can use Windows Explorer to copy all files from this folder to a floppy disk or other backup device.

Restore User Data.
Copy all files from backup device to User Data Folder and select "RoboForm. Folder. Refresh" from the toolbar or click RoboForm TaskBar icon and select "Folder. Refresh".

Copy from Computer A to Computer B.
Backup data from Computer A to a backup device such as floppy disk. Insert this device into Computer B and restore RoboForm files from device to hard drive. Click RoboForm TaskBar icon and select "Folder. Refresh" on Computer B.

Change Your User Data Folder.
You can make RoboForm store Identities and Passcards in a different folder (directory). Select RoboForm. Options in RoboForm toolbar and in User Data tab click the Set Folder button. The folder selection dialog appears. Choose a new User Data Folder. Once you click OK, RoboForm will be looking for Identities and Passcards in the selected folder. The first identity file from this directory will become the Current Identity. Please note that when you change the User Data Folder, RoboForm does not copy RFT and RFP files from the old folder to the new folder.

Advanced Topics

Advanced Form Filling

Fill Forms button meaning.
If in "Options. Form Filling" you set Fill Forms button means to AutoFill without Asking then "Fill Forms" button will fill forms without showing the "Fill Forms" dialog. It will fill forms from a Passcard if exactly one Passcard matches the current web page. If no passcards match the current web page, it will fill forms from the Current Identity.

If in "Options. Form Filling" you set Fill Forms button means to Fill & Submit without Asking then "Fill Forms" button will fill forms as described in the "AutoFill without Asking" above and then it will click the Submit button on a form. This option is available only in the Pro version.

AutoFill Without Asking.
If you want RoboForm to fill all forms without requesting permission then open the Options dialog and select the AutoFill Without Asking option. Then instead of showing the AutoFill dialog RoboForm will perform the "AutoFill Without Asking" command on every page download.

Fill Forms Options: Fill Non-Empty Fields.
If you set the Fill non-empty fields checkbox to Off in the AutoFill dialog, then only the fields that are not filled (have empty values) will be filled. If this option is On, then RoboForm fills both empty and non-empty fields. You can also change this option in the "Options. Form Filling" dialog. Available only in the Pro version. In the Free version this option is always On.

Identity Option: Empty Values Cause Filling.
This option controls whether an empty field value in the Identity will cause form filling. If this option is On, then the empty field value is put into the online form, as if it was a regular value (it can erase the previous value). If this option is Off, then the empty field value does not cause field filling in the online form. This option is set in the Identity Editor, individually for every Identity.

Two URLs in a Passcard.
Passcards have two URLs but most of the time they are the same. The Match URL is compared to the URL of the frame when deciding whether to offer the AutoFill dialog. The Goto URL is used in Login, GoFill and Goto commands. If you have a framed site with multiple domains, this distinction becomes important.

Performance Tuning: Making RoboForm Leaner and Faster

RoboForm started in 1999 as a fairly small, lean and fast application. We kept adding features and some people feel that they do not need all these features. But some other people, especially new users, feel that they really need all these features and that they cannot live without them.

So in this Chapter we explain what features can cause some performance reduction and how can they be turned off to make RoboForm even faster although slightly less convenient -- performance comes at a price.

AutoFill. When "AutoFill from Passcards" and/or "AutoFill from Identities" is On, RoboForm will analyze every web page that you download to see whether forms on this page can be filled from your Passcards and/or Identities. Even though browsing speed is hardly affected by AutoFill, the effect may be noticeable on really slow computers, say on processors slower than 166MHz.

You can avoid this slowdown altogether by turning off AutoFill. Do it when the next AutoFill dialog comes up by clicking "Do not AutoFill from Passcard/Identity" radio button. Or you can turn AutoFill off from the "Options. Form Filling" dialog.

Remember, however, that with AutoFill turned Off you will have to manually click "Fill Ident" or "Fill Forms" buttons when you need to fill forms.

AutoSave. "AutoSave" analyzes your form to see whether it is worth saving to Passcard when you click a Submit button. The slowdown caused by it is much less than the slowdown caused by AutoFill, but you can still turn this feature Off if you want to.

When the AutoSave dialog comes up, click Options and select "Do Not Offer to AutoSave". Now when you need to save a form to Passcard, you will need to click the "Save" button.

Custom Fields and RoboForm Pro

Custom fields are defined by you in the Custom tab of the Identity Editor (the rightmost tab). For each custom field you need to specify (from left to right):

Field Name.

It identifies the field. It is also used as the Main Match String for the field.

Field Value.

Determines what RoboForm puts into an online form field.

Other Match Strings.

A list of text captions that are used to match this field in an online form.
Every Match String occupies exactly one line. If you need to have more than one Other Match String, press ENTER after you finished entering the previous Other Match String.

Match Rules.
Field Name and Other Match Strings together constitute Match String List of the custom field. The Match String List is used to recognize online form field by comparing its text caption with all Match Strings contained in the Match String List. Specifically, every Match String from Match String List is matched against the text caption of an online field. If a match is found, the Identity field that matched is used to fill the online field.

Example: You want RoboForm to fill "Message" field with "My Great Speech". This field may also have captions "Your Comments" and "Say It Here".
In the Custom tab you find an unused single-line field and you enter into it:
* Field Name: enter "Message",
* Field Value: enter "My Great Speech",
* Other Match Strings: enter "Comments", press ENTER, enter "Say It Here".
Check how it works in the Custom Fields Test Form.

Words and Punctuation.
RoboForm matches case-insensitive word sequences. All punctuation characters (, . - ! ?) are removed from both Match Strings and online field text captions before matching. Click Apply after entering Match String into the Identity Editor and it will show how Match Strings will look after punctuation has been removed.

Example: You need to add a custom field for a checkbox captioned "Are you 18! or over?".
In the Custom tab you find an unused single-line field and enter into it:
* Field Name: enter "Old Enough" (will work as a match too),
* Field Value: enter "X",
* Other Match Strings: enter "Are you 18! or over?" and click Apply. It will turn into "are you 18 or over" which will be used for matching.
Check how it works in the Custom Fields Test Form.

Multiline Custom Fields.
One field at the bottom of the Custom Tab is a multi-line field. It has more than one line in its Field Value. This field will increase its size as you add more lines to it. Also if you fill unused multiline fields at the bottom of the Custom tab, another empty multiline field will be added when you click Apply or reopen the Identity Editor. So the number of multiline fields is unlimited.

Example: You want RoboForm to fill in a resume for you at an online job search site. Add a custom multiline field named "Resume" (this will match any caption with word resume in it) and assign it a multiline value "John Smith <ENTER>VirtuCon 1997-99<ENTER>Chief Designer".
Check how it works in the Custom Fields Test Form.

Check-Box Fields.
RoboForm can robo-fill checkbox fields (RoboForm has no standard checkbox fields, so you need to create a custom field). The Match Strings of this field will be matched against the text caption of the online checkbox field. Use any non-null value (X or Y or *) to cause checking of the checkbox field, use empty (null) value "" to cause unchecking of the checkbox.
Example: Add custom field named "18 or over" and assign it an "X" value. It will check any check box that has "18 or over" in its caption. See how it works in the Custom Fields Test Form.
Also see related FAQ item.

Radio Button Fields.
RoboForm can robo-fill custom radio button fields (Credit Card Type is an example of a standard radio button field). To make this happen, create a custom field. RoboForm breaks an online radio button field into a field caption and list of field values. The caption of the online field is matched against the Match Strings of your custom field, and the value list of the online radio button field is matched against the value of your custom field.
Example: Add custom field named "Marital Status". Assign it any of these values: "Married", "Single", "Divorced", "Widow". See how it works in the Custom Fields Test Form.

Subset Matches and Exact Matches.
The Match String of the custom field matches a sequence of words in the online field caption, so that the matched word sequence must be a subset of the entire online field caption. Words in the sequence must be exactly the same and their order must be exactly the same. The case of words (lower, upper or capitalized) is disregarded, though.

Sometimes you want to specify Match Strings that match the entire field caption but not its subsets. Use "=Match String" for this.
Example: If you specify "=Comments" as Other Match String for the Message field, then it will match only fields that have the "Comments" caption but not the field with "Your Comments" or "Comments Here" captions.

HTML Field Name Matches.
We do not believe in using HTML Field Names in matching, because often these names do not make much sense and can even be misleading. But if your field has no text caption at all (for example: it only has a picture caption), then HTML field names are used for matching. So if no match is found using regular text captions, RoboForm tries to match a field by its HTML name. All custom field Match Strings are used in this last-resort match attempt and spaces between words are disregarded in HTML field ID match.
Example: Add custom field named "Attitude", its value being "Positive". The field that has picture as a caption and "attitude" as its HTML name will match in the Custom Fields Test Form.