Switchers’ Blog

If you are in the market for a Mac, you need to read the new rules for buying a Mac.

Jonathan Seff and Jason Snell from Macworld posted revised rules for Mac buyers and busted many of the common myths:

• I’m a power user; therefore, I need a Mac Pro.
• I need a Mac Pro because it’s the only expandable Mac, and I need an upgrade path.
• I need a really fast Mac so I can run Windows.
• I’m a power user, so I need a desktop system, not a laptop.
• I need a desktop Mac for serious work, and a laptop for travel.
• Macs are just as expensive as they’ve always been if you want good performance.

Merlin Mann shared some serious love with 1Password today!

Must be 1Password’s new Internet Pants!

Tune-in to the live video or audio feed of Your Mac Life show tonight between 8:30pm to 11:00pm EST to hear our Carl and Shawn King talking about 1Password: Your Mac Life show – Alien Skin & 1Password.

From the YML site:

What’s your password? It’s a question we get “asked” constantly while using the Internet. Most of us have fairly simple to remember passwords and we often use the same password for multiple web sites/situations. Agile Web Solutions makes 1Password and their Chief Evangelist will be on tonight’s show to talk about how it can not only create strong passwords and remember them for you, it can also prevent phishing, auto-fill forms, sync with .Mac and much more.

Come join us!

Birthdays around here usually result in great 1Password deals for everyone and today is no exception. Today only you can get anything in the store for 42.9% percent off. Just use this link to obtain the discount. Personally, I think Dave started the “celebration” a little early this year as this is a huge discount.

After you finished in the store, stop by the forums and wish Dave a Happy Birthday. Did someone say roast?

Happy Birthday Dave

It is amazing the things we learn about from 1Password. On a daily basis we correspond with people from all walks of life. People from countries all over the world and from just about every industry and background you can imagine. I remember a few months back talking with someone who was using 1Password in the relief effort in Darfur. I was just fascinated by the thought of our software being used in those conditions. I have heard stories from a lot of other people as well and sometimes they cause diversions as I check their stuff out as was the case with the custom motorcycle builder awhile back. Most recently I corresponded with a Vietnam-era helicopter pilot and learned some interesting things. So when Carolyn Wilma (the Contest Queen) approached us several months ago about her contesting book it certainly was par for the course. She was interested in the use of 1Password for entering contests and sweepstakes and her upcoming book is now available for pre-order.

You can pre-order the U.S. edition of the book You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter! using by clicking here.

There is a short section on 1Password in the book that yours truly helped on.

I hope it is wildly successful unlike my book entitled How I turned 10 million dollars in real estate into $50 cash. Still not sure why that one didn’t get more audience. Tough crowd out there.

Since the Fluid was released we have had many requests to integrate 1Password into this site specific browser.

1Password version 2.6 addresses this and now Fluid support is available! 2.6 is not officially released yet but it is available now in beta. You can upgrade to the beta by going to 1Password > Preferences > Updates, clicking “Include BETA versions when checking for updates”, and then clicking “Check Now”.

What is a Site Specific Browser? Well, I’ll let you read their website for all the details, but the feature I love the most is being able to have individual dock icons for your favorite sites, along with visual cues specific to the web site. For example, you can have a Dock icon with the number of unread mail messages in Gmail. Here is a screenshot from the Fluid site:

Pretty sweet stuff! With the latest beta you can now access 1Password from within Fluid:

Currently the 1Password functionality is only available from the Shortcut menu. In a future update we will add an icon, likely as a menu extra since there is no need for a toolbar in Fluid.

Note that at this time Fluid is not listed in the Browsers section of the 1Password Preferences. This means you need to manually update the 1Password Input Manager if you want to use this feature. To do this, move /Library/InputManagers/1PasswdIM to the Trash and then restart 1Password to reinstall the Input Manager.

Enjoy!

1Password 2.5.12 was released today and includes support for the new Safari 3.1 update that was included in the recent Apple Software Update.

Since the release we have had over 200 emails kindly asking if we knew 1Password was broken in the new Safari update. Amazingly, Dan set a new Customer Service record today by answering 190 tickets! This update should slow the tide of questions.

This update is not limited to Safari, however. In fact, this is the biggest release we have had for quite some time. The changelog has over 40 items in it! Below are the highlights of what we have been busy building over the the last 5 weeks, along with a full changelog at the bottom.

Despite this huge list of enhancements, this update is a FREE update to all 1Password license holders.

Safari 3.1 Support

Safari 3.1 was recently released by Apple as a Software Update and this new version of 1Password adds support for it. I’m proud to say that in less than a day Roustem had 1Password working perfectly with the new release.

Greatly Improved Palm Support

This release makes numerous improvements to the 1Password Reader for Palm application. Roustem spent a great deal of effort bringing Palm support up to match the iPhone/iPod touch applications.

The Palm application is now packaged directly within 1Password for easier setup. The new Sync to Palm window greatly simplifies the synching and setup processes. In addition, Wallet items are now synced to Palm, items are listed in alphabetical order, and users can use the new search function to find items quickly.

New Sync to Palm toolbar item:

New Sync to Palm window:

Updated Palm Application window, including Search and Wallet items:

Go & Fill Now Available From Dock

Go & Fill functionality is now accessible directly from the 1Password Dock icon, providing the ability to go to a web site, fill the login form, and submit it, all in a single click.

Integrated Help

By popular demand the online 1Password Help has been moved into a standard Apple Help menu item. This makes it easier to search the documentation as well as allowing review while offline.

New assistant for first-time users

A new assistant will help first-time users install their Browser Extensions, signup to the Agile newsletter, as well as configure automatic updates.

Kudos to Dan for the snazzy new look!

Latest Camino nightly build support

The Camino nightly builds are constantly evolving. This release of 1Password once again enables support for the latest Camino nightly build.

Autosave prompt allows replacement of existing form

I am personally very fond of this new feature. This item has been on my todo list for a very long time, and one day Chad was looking for work so I assigned it to him. Thanks to Chad the Autosave Logins window can now replace an existing Web Form.

I will be sure to go through my 4 or 5 other todo lists and assign as many items as I can to Chad

Upgrading to 1Password 2.5.12

The 1Password 2.5.12 release will automatically install itself when you start 1Password if you enabled the automatic Check For Updates preference. If the automatic update window does not appear, check your Preferences in the 1Password > Preferences > Update window and ensure “Automatically check for updates” is checked, as shown here:

You can also manually select File > Check For Updates and 1Password will automatically download and install the latest version.

Changelog

http://agilewebsolutions.com/versions/list/one_password#v6253

The title of this post represents a paraphrase of e-mails that we often receive from users of 1Password who are wondering about the process of changing a weaker password to a stronger secure password. This topic was actually one of the original topics in our original user guide and we have referred people to this article on many occasions. However, since the time it was written we’ve added some more tools to 1Password that simplify the process and make it easier to do. Therefore, I wanted to expand on the original article and throw a real-world example into the mix.

Some of the features I will mention are covered in my previous blog post about “Dealing with Rejection” so check it out if you have not already done so. However, this post presumes no previous reading. Before we get started I do want to point out a couple of points of confusion in this area. First, you still have to follow the web site’s normal password change procedure. These can vary greatly from site to site. Next, 1Password will not automatically update any previously saved web forms you may have for the site. You will need to manually update them or use the procedure I am going to use below. Finally, the process is not automated by 1Password so you will still need to do a little work but it is will be very easy as I will show in my example.

So, let’s get started!

For our example, I will use our own support forums at http://support.agilewebsolutions.com/.

Step 1 - Login to the site

The login for the forums is located at the top right of the page:

Shown closer here:

The first thing I will need to do is login to the site. If I already have a working web form saved for this site then I can click on the 1Password icon in my favorite browser, select Restore Form, and choose the login. Personally, I use the Command-\ keyboard to do this.

Step 2 - Use the web site’s password change procedure

Once logged in, I start my navigation to the password change page. On our site you click on the User Control Panel first:

Then click on Edit Email & Password:

I am then presented with the Change Password page below.

Step 3 - Fill the current password

The first field in the screen above is asking for my current password, so I have typed it in.

Power Tip: If you already have a web form saved for this site it is possible that you can use Restore Form to fill in the current password for you. It depends on the field names and the site. Try using the Restore Form feature to see if it will fill. In this case, it did not fill the current password in because the field name is currentpassword and my form has the password saved in a field named vb_login_password. (from the login page)

If you do not know your current password but have a web form saved in 1Password, you can look it up in the main 1Password application. You can then copy it to the clipboard and paste it in the field. The easiest way to do this is to use the search feature to locate the form. For example. use the domain name as shown here:

In the bottom pane, hover your mouse to the right of the password and a copy button will appear. Click on button to copy the password to the clipboard.

Step 4 - Generate a strong password

Now that we have used one of the above methods to get our current password filled on the page, we will let 1Password generate our new strong password for us. First, click on the 1Password icon and select Strong Password Generator.

The Strong Password Generator window will appear:

I am going to maximize the strength of this password so I have moved all the sliders to the right since this site allows 50 character passwords. Some sites will not allow a password of this length or may have other rules for the password. Using the customization window you can adjust it to fit the needs of the site.

Since this is a password change I am going to click on the Copy to Clipboard button first so that I have it in on my clipboard for pasting later. The reason for doing this first will be more apparent in a few more steps.

Next, I click the Fill button to populate the generated passwords into the fields on the web site.

The web page now looks like this:

(Note: I blanked out my personal e-mail address, but it was populated before I submitted it)

I click on the Save Changes button and my password has been changed.

However, we still have an issue to deal with in order to finish the process because 1Password does not have a web form with the new password.

Step 5 - Save a new web form (or overwrite the existing one)

So, I log out of the site and return to the front page again.

First, I type in my username in the top field. I copied my newly generated strong password to the clipboard back in Step 4 so I would have it handy. I can now use Edit >> Paste or Command-V to paste the new password into the login page. I do not click on the Login in button yet.

Instead, I click on the 1Password icon and select Save Form from the menu.

If I already have a web form saved for the site, then I want to replace it with the new information. When the Save Form window pops-up:

I use the pull down menu at the top to replace my existing form. If I do not have a web form saved at this site then I create a new one:

In either case, I click on the Save button to save the web form.

Step 6 - Test the new web form

I now blank out the the fields I just populated on the page so that it once again looks like this:

I then user the Restore Form feature to fill and submit my credentials:

and verify that I am logged in successfully:

I completed the entire process without ever loading the main 1Password application and handled everything directly in the browser. I took a very weak password at this site and made it very strong and used 1Password to do the hard work. When you get comfortable using this process it takes less than a minute.

How to handle a potential “Gotcha” in the process

In Step 4, I copied the password onto the clipboard before I filled it. I then pasted it in Step 5. However, what happens if I forget this step? Am I out of luck? Absolutely not. Anytime you click the Fill button on the 1Password strong password generator window the password is saved to the Password History section in the main 1Password application. In order to retrieve the new password, I can load the main 1Password application and click on the Password History section:

Search for the domain to find the entry.

Hint: If I keep the Password History sorted by the Modified column then most recently generated password will always be on top.

I can then copy the password to the clipboard my moving by mouse just to the right of the password field in the bottom pane and clicking on the copy button:

If you have questions or comments about the process, we would love to hear them.

Face it, no one likes to get rejected, but when you use 1Password’s strong password generator to generate a secure cryptic password and the site rejects it for some reason it can be a bit frustrating. Sometimes the password is just fine but that username you picked was already taken. Who knew R2D2Rulez would not be available on the Star Wars message boards? However, 1Password has some features that help you deal with the craziness that is the world wide web when it comes to registering at new sites and saving the login information in 1Password.

Here’s a typical login page from a popular internet site:

With a page like this I could use the Fill with Identity feature to complete all the information on the form since 1Password will automatically use the strong password generator to populate the password fields when it fills the e-mail and usernames fields on the page. 1Password is smart that way. When it sees password fields on a form you are filling it guesses that you want to generate strong ones so it does it for you. However, for this example I am going to click on the 1Password icon and select the strong password generator option and just fill those fields.

I like my passwords to be as secure as possible so I am going to move the slider for the length of the password to 50. I’ll also make sure it has 6 numbers and 6 symbols. That looks pretty secure to me so I click on the Fill button at the bottom right.

However, there is a problem because this particular web page only allows passwords to be 12 characters long. If the web site is coded properly then 1Password will identify the maximum length allowed for the page and offer to shorten it for you as shown below. If not, you may not find out until the form is rejected after you save it.

I suppose I will have to live with a 12 character long password so I click the Shorten Password and Fill button. 1Password automatically reduces the password length for me. I now complete the rest of the page and click on the submit button. The 1Password autosave window appears:

I click on Save button to create a new web form.

Doh!! I forgot to select a username so my form is rejected:

So I am back to square one:

I complete the form again and select a username this time. I also generate a new password since I was too lazy to go look up the last one in the Password History section of 1Password. Hint: ALL passwords filled by the strong password generator get saved in the Password History section of the main 1Password application. Therefore, you will never be in a situation where you don’t know what the generated password is even if you did not save a web form for the site.

Since I already know that it can only be 12 characters, I generate one that length:

I submit the registration page and am again prompted by 1Password’s Autosave window. However, since I already saved a form without a username (and a different password) the last time around, I am going to overwrite that one with the correct information. Notice the highlighted area below.

Instead of creating a new web form, I use the pull down menu and select the older form to replace:

Note: For the sake of anonymity I have replaced the actual name of the web site with - and + symbols.

Any existing forms for the domain I am currently at will be shown. In this case, I am replacing the one I saved earlier. (——-.com)

So now I have replaced the previously saved form with the latest information. If the site were to reject my username or other information again I could repeat this process as many times as necessary. So while dealing with rejection can be a pain, it doesn’t have to be that frustrating. In fact, in this example I never opened the main 1Password application and handled everything in the browser.

If you have comments, we would love to hear them.

From the Wikipedia Article:

John Dennis (1657 - January 6, 1734), was an English critic and dramatist, born in London, the son of a saddler.
…
His other works include several plays, for one of which, Appius and Virginia (1709), he invented a new kind of thunder. The play was not a success and the management of the Drury Lane Theatre withdrew it. But later at a performance of Macbeth there Dennis found the thunder produced by his method and said, That is my thunder, by God; the villains will play my thunder, but not my play.

According to Brewer’s entry (under the headword thunder), this is the origin of the phrase, “to steal one’s thunder”.

Outside of possibly saving me if I ever get to appear on Jeopardy, it reminds me of a new feature that we implemented in 1Password a short time ago that has pretty much been overshadowed by the new Sync to iPhone feature. The new functionality comes in the form of a new import/export format named 1Password Interchange. I really bugged the development team hard for this feature and I am very proud of how it turned out. So in an attempt to get some thunder back for the 1Password Interchange format I wanted to explain what makes it so great and how it can be used.

1. An additional backup method

1Password already does automatic backups and you can manually backup the 1Password keychain at any time by clicking on the File Menu in the main program and selecting Backup Keychain. However, these backups are still in the Apple Keychain format. The 1Password Interchange File is a structured plain text file that can be imported instead of just copied. (more on the power of this in #2)

2. Manual Syncing (SneakerSync)

In the early days of personal computers Local Area Networks (LANs) were not prevalent as they were expensive and difficult to setup. When someone wanted to copy a file from one computer to another they would copy the file to a floppy disk, walk to the other computer, insert the floppy, and copy it onto the other computer. This was referred to as SneakerNet which was a play on Ethernet (a LAN standard) and referred to the walking part. With the 1Password Interchange file you can import the exported 1Password Interchange File on another Mac to sync information from one Mac to another manually. I refer to this as SneakerSync.

You can export all the entries from 1Password:

or you can select certain entries and only export those:

You can name the export file anything you desire or use the default:

You can then use any method available to copy the exported file to the other Mac including LAN (or Wireless) transfer, FTP transfer, USB thumb drive, CD/DVD, or e-mail. (not recommended)

Importing the 1Password Interchange File on the other Mac is both easy and powerful because not only does 1Password check the data that is already in the destination Mac’s 1Password, it allows you to customize exactly what to import and where to import it.

On the other Mac, you select Import from the File menu and choose 1Password Interchange from the list of import types as shown here:

Click on the Choose File button to select the file that you exported and copied earlier.

A preview of the data will be shown and the Encoding method will be automatically set. If the data does not look correct, change the encoding method until it is readable. Here is an example of what it looks like:

Click Start Import to continue the process. Now comes the part that makes this so powerful for syncing. Take a look at the this screen:

Notice that the Action column shows two different actions? (Update and Create) If 1Password sees that there is already an existing item in the destination Mac’s keychain it will update that item. If the item does not exist then it will create a new item on that Mac. Therefore, it is safe to import everything without worrying about duplicates. However, you can use the gear menu to make the import more granular and faster by only selecting a subset of the entries.

Clicking on the gear menu displays these options:

You can use these options to customize what items will be imported.

By default, 1Password will merge the imported items in with your current data. However, if you wanted to have all the imported items put into a special folder you can do this by typing in a folder name as shown below:

Once you determine which items you want to import, click on the Import # Selected Objects at the bottom and they will be processed into 1Password.

Using the above procedure, you can sync the data from multiples Macs to each other.

3. Moving your 1Password data to another Mac

Maybe you got a new MacBook to add to your stable of Macs or perhaps you upgraded from a G5 iMac to a new Intel iMac. You could install 1Password on the new Mac and then copy the 1Password.keychain file located in the User_Name >> Library >> Keychains folder of your current Mac to the same folder on the new Mac to get all your 1Password data onto the new Mac. However, the preferred method is to Export All as 1Password Interchange File on your current Mac and then import the file into the blank keychain that was created on the new Mac. This eliminates any chance of permission issues cropping up and is just as fast. Just follow the same procedure in #2 above. All of the entries will have Create listed in the Action column.

4. Resolving Browser Permission Issues

As you update browser versions, install new browsers, and/or remove browsers from your Mac the Access Control List (ACL) on the 1Password keychain can end up with extraneous permissions or duplicates. One way to fix this issue is to use the Rebuild Keychain from the Help menu in the main 1Password application. However, this does not work in all cases. 1Password Interchange to the rescue! The procedure listed below is pretty much the same as what we looked at in #2, but for ease of use I am listing the ordered steps below.

Rebuilding a keychain using the 1Password Interchange Format to Export and Re-Import the data

1. Load the main 1Password application
2. Click on the File menu and select Export All >> 1Password Interchange File…
3. Note the Filename and Folder and click on the Export button. A Finder window will open showing the file.
4. Exit 1Password
5. Rename the 1Password.keychain file located in the User_Name >> Library >> Keychains folder to 1Password.keychain.mybackup
6. Restart 1Password
7. Since there is no keychain you will see the Welcome Screen. Click on the icon next to “Create 1Password Keychain File” to create a new keychain
8. Choose and confirm the 1Password master password and click on the Create Keychain File button
9. Click the OK button and then Click the Start Using 1Password button
10. Quit 1Password
11. Restart 1Password
12. Click on the File menu and select Import
13. Use the pull down menu and select 1Password Interchange File and then click the Continue button
14. Click on the Choose File button and select the file from Step 3
15. Use the pulldown menu to Select ASCII for the Encoding method
16. Click the Start Import button
17. Click on the Import xxx Selected Objects button

I hope that I have shown what a powerful tool the 1Password Interchange format is and that its multiple uses bring a lot more power to 1Password. I would love to hear your comments. We now return you to more posts related to 1Password and the iPhone.