2/27/2006

Robo Form Tips and Tricks

If you're a Robo Form user then you already know its value and spare a lot of time by filling forms and logins automatically. But there are some options that allow you to get the best out of Robo Form, and it would be pitty not to use them.
Here are several tips on using Robo Form, that helped me improve its usability:

  1. Keyboard shortcuts. If you don't use them yet, you should start to do so. Of course you don't need all of them, but some turn out to be very useful for me, like: Fill & Submit (shortcut Alt+Z, it will fill the login details automatically and submit them), Save Forms (shortcut Alt+[, if you're filling a form/login for the first time you can use this shortcut to save the details if Robo Form doesn't ask you to do that) and My Identity (shortcut Alt + 1-9, which will fill the current form with the details saved in the identity that you choose).
    Robo Form keyboard shortcuts

  2. Set as Default option. It happens usually that for the same site you have several logins, for instance for Yahoo you have 4 email accounts and you saved the logins for them all, but you use one of them more often. In this case you can set that passcard to be the default one, so when you'll click on the matching passcards tab that login will be entered automatically. To set one passcard as default, visit the website that you have several entries for (Yahoo as an example), wait until the matching passcards appear, hover with the mouse, right click the one you want to save as default and select that option, just like you see in the image below. From now on whenever you'll click on that matching passcards button the default login will be entered.
    Set as default in Robo Form

  3. Passcard shortcut to desktop. If you have several passcards that you use more often you can create a shortcut for each of them on your desktop. However having to many it's not recommended, but 2-3 shorcuts to your desktop are useful. To create a shortcut just right click a passcard and select Add Shortcut To->Desktop (if you have enough space you can add it to the quick launch too).
    Passcard desktop shortcuts
    Once the shorcut is saved on your desktop, you can simply double click it and it will open the webpage, fill in the logins and submit it, so it acts like a bookmark too.
    Saved roboform desktop shortcut
    One more thing there would be the feature that I marked in the previous image, Fill Empty fields only. This is particullary useful when you're using a browser such as FireFox that saves too the information you fill in. Thus, there's no need to click on the Robo Form to fill a field that's already been filled.

  4. Fill and Submit as default action. A normal login page will have a Username (email address) field, a Password field and a Submit button. By default when you'll click on the matching passcard in Robo Form it will only fill your details in, and you will have to click on Submit. There is however an option in Robo Form that once enabled it will fill in and "click" on the Submit button.
    Fill and submit automatically

  5. Autofill web forms. By default when you'll get to a new web form Robo Form will not prompt any window to fill in anything. There is an option that you can check to have Robo Form prompt a window to fill in details from your identities and/or passcards to a new web form. This is useful with forms that are similar (like forum registrations, sweepstakes forms).
    Offer to autofill web forms

  6. Recently used passcards/safenotes. I have many passcards and safenotes, and usually in a day I'll use at most 8-10 logins (at home). So those are saved in a recently used list that you can easily access if you press the Logins/Safenotes button in the Robo Form toolbar. Instead of going through all the logins alphabetically you can just use the entry from the recently used list.
    Recently used passcards/safenotes

  7. Robo Form on USB. Pass-2-Go is the portable version of Robo Form. It acts just like RoboForm does, but you install it on a USB drive and use it from there. It lets you use someone else's PC and not have to remember your passwords because everything stays on the USB drive, so there's never a risk of anyone on the host PC seeing them, plus that if you lose the USB drive everything is encrypted and nobody will be able to read the data without the proper password. Plus that if you don't have a USB drive you can order one from Robo Form too.
    Pass-2-go

  8. Always on top. Don't blush yet, this is an option in Robo Form. I love Opera, but one of the things that I miss in it is the fact that I cannot use Robo Form, and let's face it that the Wand option in Opera is not very good. This is why I came up with a compromise, to use a Passcard editor window allways on top of all other windows when browsing with Opera. I can simply copy the username/password by clicking on the small icon in front of each field stored in Robo Form, and paste it in the Opera fields. It's annoying sometimes but you get used to it.
    Roboform used in Opera


These are the tips that I could think for now. If you have others, send them in to spuby2000@gmail.com

Download the latest version here (approx. 2MB): Robo Form 6.6.5
Download portable version of Robo Form from here: Pass 2 Go 6.6.5

2/15/2006

Robo Form Adapter for FireFox

Robo Form works with many browsers, and installing the Robo Form toolbar in those browsers resumes to installing a simple executable file. This tutorial focuses on the installation of the Robo Form adapter in FireFox, but for other browsers the principle is the same.

First of all, you need to download a file called Universal Adapter Installer. After the download finishes, run the Robo Form adapter setup by double clicking on it. A wizard will start guiding you through the installation process.

Robo Form Firefox adapter

If the setup detects the FireFox version that you have installed, it will be displayed in the These supported browsers are auto-detected on your computer field, as you can see in the image above (FireFox 1.5 was detected). If no browsers are detected, but you know exactly what you have installed, you can check the Manual Adapter Setup option.
A confirmation window will appear saying that you need to know exactly what browser you have installed otherwise the Robo Form toolbar will not work correctly.

Robo Form Adapter for FireFox

After you click Yes on the confirmation window, another one will appear and you will be able to select from a drop down box the browser that you are installing Robo Form for. This setup can be used for uninstallation of the Robo Form adapter, the difference being that in this step you would have to select the Uninstall button. However, to continue with the installation, select as action Install and then click Ok.

Robo Form adapter manual installation

After this step the actual installation will start. If you have FireFox opened, it will prompt you to install roboform-firefox-1.5.xpi. This is a FireFox extension that the Robo Form adapter setup copied in the temporary folder and executed. When the Install button is not greyed out (takes about 4 seconds) click it to complete the installation of the Robo Form extension.

Robo Form XPI

Meantime, the Robo Form adapter setup wizard is not closed, it pops up a window telling you what to do, complete the installation in browsers, close the browsers and click the Ok button of that window.

Robo adapter

After you clicked the Ok button in the last message from the adapter setup, open FireFox. If everything went well you will be able to see the Robo Form toolbar at the top of the browser.

FireFox Robo Form

And this is it. You have successfully installed the Robo Form toolbar in FireFox.

There is another way for doing this installation. You can open FireFox, click on Tools->Extensions and then on Get More Extensions. This will open a webpage where you can find lots of FireFox extensions. Do a search for Robo Form and you should be able to find the appropriate extension. Scroll down the page until you see the Install Now button and click on it.

Install Robo Form

After you click on that, a progress window will show you how the extension is being downloaded.

Download Robo Form extension

After that is finished, you will be able to install the extension and that's it. Restart FireFox to have the Robo Form toolbar displayed.

Download the latest version here (approx. 2MB): Robo Form 6.6.5
Download portable version of Robo Form from here: Pass 2 Go 6.6.5
Download FireFox: Fire Fox 1.5.0.1

2/10/2006

RoboForm discount code

A $10 discount code is available for ordering Robo Form Pro or other products from Siber System. The discount is valid only if your income for 2005 was less than $20,000 (so for instance if you had a monthly income of up to $1,666 you will qualify for the discount). When you are completing the purchase order with this discount code, you certify the fact that your declaration is valid and if you will be asked to send papers to demonstrate this you are obligated to.

This is a step by step process to order Robo Form Pro with a discount code (you can order other products too and still get the $10 discount from the total amount).
First go to the Robo Form buy now page.

Robo Form order page

Automatically 1 license of Robo Form Pro will be added to your shopping cart. Do not click on Continue yet. Go to the Discount Code (optional) field that's at the bottom of the ordering page and enter the discount code SNC just like you see on the image above. The price now it's still $29.95, but if you click on the Update button you should see the price dropping to $19.95.

Robo Form Discount

The discount of $10 should be now displayed as -10.00. After you see that, click on Continue to go to the next step.

Pay Robo Form Pro

Here you can select a payment method (credit card, paypal transfer, check) and review your order (see again if the $10.00 is displayed). After that click on Checkout to enter your payment details and complete the order.

Checkout Robo form

This final step completes when you enter the correct details and click on Submit.
If you want to test Robo Form before you buy it download it here: Robo Form 6.6.5
It also has a portable solution: Pass 2 Go 6.6.5

[update]
I've found 2 more Robo Form coupon codes. One gives a discount of $3 and the other a discount for $10 (for this one you don't need to prove that you have a low income).

For $3 off, use the coupon code CORTS and when you click on Update you should see the following text: SW User Group Conference discount is applied: -3.00
RoboForm coupon code

To get $10 off, use the coupon code INP and when you click on Update make sure the following text is displayed: InfoPackets discount is applied: -10.00
Roboform discount code
[Update] There's a new roboform coupon code as mentioned in the comments, if you use NVER1 you will get 20% off - good to hear about this new roboform discount
[Update] Other Robo Form discount codes:
GOOG1 - 20% discount off your Roboform purchase (via Google advertising)
STRV4 - 20% discount off your Roboform purchase
XMAS1 - 20% discount off your Roboform purchase
SDGCS - 20% discount off GoodSync Professional orders

2/08/2006

Robo Form 6.6.5 and AutoSave tip

Robo Form 6.6.5 was released today. On their news section there is only one mention regarding changes in this version: Added option Clear Generated Passwords on Logoff. Probably they also fixed a couple of minor bugs, beside the change mentioned above.

Robo Form banner

Download the latest version here (approx. 2MB): Robo Form 6.6.5
Download portable version of Robo Form from here: Pass 2 Go 6.6.5

The Robo Form AutoSave dialog appears each time when you visit a website for the first time and enter some login detail. It will prompt if you want to save that login to your passcards for later use. You can either save or cancel it (if you cancel you will still continue to the login page).

Robo Form cannot save passcard

However, if you are creating a new account on a website, ususally these forms contain a Password and Repeat Password field. Robo Form will detect that and will tell you that it cannot save the login and in order to have a passcard for this stored you will need to finish creating the account, logout from that website and re-login. When you re-login you will click on the Save button for the AutoSave window.

2/03/2006

Is Robo Form safe?

Robo Form is well-behaved: NO ADWARE, NO SPYWARE. This is a statement from their website and I back that up 100%. I've been using Robo Form for a long time and I've scanned and tested my computer a lot and Robo Form indeed behaves very well.
I've enabled the Robo Form tray icon and also the Robo Form toolbar, and I scanned my computer for viruses, adaware/spyware and monitored all the time using the firewall.

The adaware/spyware scan. For this purpose I've used the latest version of Lavasoft AdAware SE Personal, Build 1.06r1, with the database updated to the version dated 03.02.2006. The result was no spyware or adaware threats detected, as you can see in the image below (and you can also see the Robo Form toolbar enabled)

Roboform adaware scan

The virus scan test. For this I used NOD32, with an updated database from 03.02.2006. I first scanned the directory where Robo Form installs by default (Program Files\Siber Systems\AI RoboForm\) and after that the entire partition. As expected, no threats were detected.

nod 32 robo form scan

The firewall test. I always have a firewall started and monitoring the activity. Since the day I installed Robo Form until now, there was no report of it trying to communicate through the web. The firewall I use is McAfee Personal Firewall 5. Even when I enable the tray icon, the process (called RoboTaskBarIcon.exe) does not try to connect to the Internet. The only communication is done via the toolbar, when Robo Form is able to detect new versions of it on the sites that are visited. It will prompt this way a window asking if you want to update to the latest version or not. But Robo Form does not send anything from your computer, so the passcards and other personal data are safe.

Robotaskbaricon.exe process report

McAfee robo form report

The reliability test. Robo Form is developed and marketed by Siber Systems Inc, a Virginia (US) corporation, in business since 1997. Robo Form is also part of the BBBOnLine Reliability program. What is BBB?
The BBB is a leader in public services related to ethical business practices and dispute resolution. It is our passion to promote honesty and integrity in the marketplace. We are committed to and guided by trust, respect and fairness. Our aim is to help make the local community a better place in which we can all live, work and prosper.

BBB reliability program robo form

What this all means to the end-user, is that if you report a problem regarding their sales practice or anything related to the credibility of Robo Form and Siber System, they are obligated to investigate and solve it.
Beside this, Robo Form als has a 30 day money back guarantee, so if you are not satisfied with it you can request your money back.

If you are still not convinced that Robo Form is safe, just do a search online and see how many respected publications recommend it (The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNET, MorningStar). If there was the smallest doubt about the safety of Robo Form it would have been reported until now.

That's about it. If you have questions send an email to spuby2000@gmail.com and I'll try to answer it.

Download the latest version here (approx. 2MB): Robo Form 6.6.4
Download portable version of Robo Form from here: Pass 2 Go 6.6.4
RoboForm: Learn more...
RoboForm: Learn more...