Initially appeared on doktorko.com on 9/21/2005.
OK, so i did ditch Opera 8 in favor of my beloved Firefox, but it's not an all or none deal - there was something in that browser that i never knew i couldn't live without: the Wand.
In short, the Wand is an autofill feature that stores logins, passwords, and logs you into the website in question automatically. FF die-hards claim that this is the exact same functionality offered by FF's autofill feature - which only reveals their ignorance. In my experience, the autofill feature leaves a lot to be desired (it doesn't seem to work on all websites) and causes problems once multiple users (with multiple login names, natch) start using the same website.
Case in point: GMAIL. My wife and i have separate accounts, which necessitates logging-in individually, filling in the corresponding password fields, and clicking "login.". I realize that this doesn't really take a lot of energy, but i AM a lazy-butt on top of being a cheapo (two of my more endearing traits), so a few more key/mouse-strokes than necessary is too much for me. The Wand (for the eight-odd hours that i used it) worked as so: navigate to the website (www.gmail.com), click the wand, and select your desired login. It fills in the forms and logs you in automatically.
What could be simpler than that? But again, Opera and i didn't really mix, so i had to look for a similar function in FF. What i found was an extension called "Roboform," an add-on to FF that performs exactly as the Wand does. It was unwieldy at first - coming with its own toolbar which restricted my browsing space even more - but with a little tweaking, i managed to compress it into just one little "logins" (not a typo) menu beside "help." A little more tweaking, and it was running perfectly.
I navigate to GMail and the little Roboform window pops up and asks me who i want to log in as. Double click the appropriate name and voila! - i'm in. I navigate to doktorko.com, Uptodate, etc. and it has the same simple interface. On websites where i want more security (e.g. Ebay and Amazon), the logins are protected by a "master" password. And on sites where i don't want my numbers lying around (bank sites, notably), i disable Roboform and enter stuff manually. No muss, no fuss.
The only caveat to this would be version compatibility: FF 1.0.7 is only compatible with Roboform 6.4.2. Plus, all of the present versions are unstable with FF 1.5b (i've had a couple of crashes). So if you're going to try it out, make sure you've got the right stuff.
Lazy-butts of the world - UNITE!
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