The Getting Started section contains a brief tutorial to help you get up to speed quickly using Web Confidential. In it, you will be introduced to the following topics:
Tip: This tutorial is also available as a PDF document on the Web. Its URL is:
http://www.web-confidential.com/tutorial.pdf
To add cards directly in Web Confidential, proceed as follows:
Open the Web Confidential folder on your hard disk and double click on the Web Confidential icon to start the program.
You will be presented with an empty card (see picture below). Your new password file will be assigned the default name "Untitled 1".
Let's start by creating a card for your email account. Typically, you were issued a username and password when you opened your account. We will now create a Web Confidential card containing this information.
By default, Web Confidential displays a card structured for a World Wide Web (WWW) page address. This means that each of the four fields in labelled appropriately for a Web page address.
To select a different category of card, click the card category popup menu - it currently displays "WWW Sites".
Select "Email Accounts". An "Email Account" card is the appropriate card type for storing the details of your POP or IMAP email account.
Click on the Add button in the Web tool bar.
In the field Name, enter your name.
In the field Server, enter the name of POP or IMAP server, for example: mail.mac.com.
In the field Login, enter your user name. Do not confuse this with your real name; you user name will be one word with no spaces. It is usually a combination of letters from your first and last name.
In the field Password, enter your password. Please enter exactly as it was issued.
Notice that your password is not displayed as you type, but rather bullets are substituted for each letter. This is for reasons of confidentiality, namely to prevent an onlooker from being able to see your password.
To ensure, however, that you have indeed entered your password correctly, you can view it by clicking on the Eyeglasses icon next to the Password field. This will display your password in a Help Balloon or Help Tag.
You have now created your first Web Confidential card. Before you go any further, take a moment to save this password file to disk. Click the Save button from the toolbar. The Save File dialog will prompt you for a filename for your password file. The Web Confidential default is "Untitled 1"; presumably you will want to change this to something more meaningful to you. Once you have given your Web Confidential password file a distinctive filename, simply clicking the Save button periodically will save changes to your password file as you work.
Regarding the location of your password file on your hard disk: I advise you to store it in your Documents directory. More precisely, I would like that you create a folder named Passwords in your Documents directory and a folder named Startup Items in your Passwords directory. Put your password file in this Startup Items directory.
When Web Confidential is launched the next time, it will open your password file automatically and ask you for your encryption passphrase.
One of the outstanding features of Web Confidential -- one that sets it apart from simple cardfile programs -- is its tight integration with your Web Browser. As you will see below, Web Confidential can send an URL to your Web Browser, meaning you don't have to Cut and Paste information manually -- Web Confidential handles this chore automatically. But this integration doesn't stop there. Web Confidential can also receive information from your Web Browser. You can in fact add a card from within your Web Browser with a single keystroke.
To add a card from within your Web Browser, proceed as follows:
First, make sure Web Confidential is running. Then start your Web Browser (for many people this will be either Explorer, Netscape, iCab or Opera; Web Confidential works with all browsers.)
You will notice that Web Confidential has added an icon menu to the menu bar of your Web Browser: the Web Confidential application icon menu. (If the Diamond icon menu is showing, choose Preferences from the Diamond menu, click the Appearance tab, and enable the Go into Web Confidential Mode preference.
Now, go to a Web Page, perhaps one you've saved in your Bookmarks or Favorites list.
Go the Web Confidential Application icon menu, and click the first menu item: Add Card. Voila! This URL has now been added to your current Web Confidential password file. The command Add Card always adds the information to the WWW Sites directory.
When the preference Add Notes was enabled, you were also giving the option to add a comment with the card.
To view the results, switch back to Web Confidential. The card you just added will be displayed. Web Confidential copies the title of the given Web Page to the Name field and copies the address to the URL field. You can modify this information as required. When you are done, save this card to disk by clicking the Save button.
If Web Confidential is not open, click on the program icon to launch it. Next, use the Open command under the File menu to open the password file you created in the previous section.
Once you have reopened your Web Confidential password file, take a minute to examine the popup menu used for selecting the category of card in Web Confidential. Web Confidential offers you fourteen different types of cards, each with corresponding fields. When you select a different category, the field names change accordingly. Instead, for example, of a password field, the ATM/PIN Card Category has a PIN code field.
In designing Web Confidential, we have tried to anticipate your needs for defining the fields each of various categories. However, it is quite possible that you may want to store additional information for a given card. To anticipate this situation, we include a note field.
To view and edit the note field, click on the Show Note checkbox in the lower left- hand corner of the card. The note field will be displayed. Under System 7, you can enter up to 255 characters; under Mac OS 8 and higher a note can be of unlimited length.
Now let's turn to the toolbar. The most important functions for manipulating cards have been assigned buttons on the toolbar. We have already seen the Save and Add buttons. The remaining buttons include the following:
The Switch to an Internet Application button allows you to launch Internet applications directly from Web Confidential. By default, it launches your Web Browser. However, if you click on it and hold the mouse button down, a popup menu allows you to select a different application, such as an FTP, Email, Telnet, or Newsreader program. Your selection then becomes the default action for this button until you make a different selection.
As such, Web Confidential can serve as mini-launch pad for your most frequently- used Internet programs.
The Switch to an Internet Application button is useful, but it is not nearly as powerful as the Go button directly to the right.
The Go button expands upon the functionality offered by the Switch to an Internet Application button by going directly to the URL specified in the second field. It does this by starting the appropriate application and supplying it with this URL.
For example, create a WWW Page card using an URL from your bookmark file or any other source. First select WWW Sites from the Category popup menu. Then click Add. Now fill in the first two fields as you see fit. (The third and fourth fields, User ID and Password, you can leave blank.) When you are done, click Save.
Now, click on the Go button. If your Web Browser is not currently open, it will be opened with the URL in field two as the URL destination. If your Web Browser is already open, this URL will be passed to it. In either case, your Web Browser will then try to load this page.
The third button from the left, the Copy Password button, allows you to copy a password to the Clipboard and paste it into another application. This saves you having to enter your password manually.
For example, create a password card using the WWW Forms category. This might be the password you use to access your personal account information on a site like Amazon.com. First select WWW Forms from the Category popup menu. Then click Add. Now fill in the first and last fields as you see fit. When you are done, click Save.
Now, click the Copy Password button. The contents of the last field will be copied to the Clipboard. If you switch to your Web Browser and position the cursor in the Password field of an on screen form, you can use the Paste command from the Edit menu (or press Command-V) to paste your password into this field. Later you will see that Web Confidential can also find and enter the password field of a form for you.
The Find button displays a Find dialog which enables you to search cards.
The Key button allows you to encrypt your Web Confidential password file. This is a powerful feature, but if it is used incorrectly it can cause you a lot of grief. Please review carefully Encrypting Password Files in the Reference section before using this feature.
The Delete button allows you to delete the current card. Use this command carefully, as it does not prompt you to confirm a card deletion.
As you've seen above, you can go to a Web Page from within Web Confidential by clicking the Go button on the toolbar. However, Web Confidential also allows you go to a Web Page stored in your password file directly from within your Web Browser. This is done by using the Web Confidential Shared Menu. Using the Shared Menu, you can in fact access your list of cards as easily as you can access your Web Browser's bookmark or favorites file. All your cards are listed in the submenu of the Confidential menu item (see below).
The sub menu of a Category name lists all cards in that category. Choosing a menu item from this sub menu will load that card in the current browser window.
Each card of the WWW Forms category and each card that has its 'Automatic Access' attribute not checked, will subsequently show the Card Info Window (see below).
If you hold down the Command (or Apple) key while making a menu item selection, you will be presented the Card Info Window (see below) always. The card will not be loaded automatically and leaves it up to you to click the Internet Location icon (see below).
The Card Info Window which gives you an overview of the data that is stored in the card is presented below.
The commands available are:
See how Web Confidential can automate logging into a password-protected Web Page by trying this:
Add a new card to your password file in the "WWW Sites" category.
Here is an URL for a page that is password-protected:
http://www.web-confidential.com/bond/
Now enter in the User ID field:
james
and in the Password field:
bond007
Don't forget to enter a name in the first field; let's call it:
Top Secret Page
Next, locate the popup menu next to the URL field (the popup menu has a checkmark icon). Now, please check the menu item "Automatic Access".
You can now launch this page directly by clicking the Go button in the Toolbar. Web Confidential automates the authorization process for you, making viewing password-protected pages as easy as unprotected ones.
Note: this type of web page access is called HTTP Authentication.
Some sites, such as Amazon.com, or personalized sites, such as My Yahoo, require passwords for personal services. You can store these passwords in the category WWW Forms.
Put all your data that concerns WWW Forms in the WWW Forms category.
Choosing an item from the WWW Forms sub menu displays the Card Info Window for that item (see below).
Whenever you need to supply a password on a Web Page in a so-called WWW Form you can try to use the Password button in the Card Info Window to enter the password automatically.
Below is a part of the form on the Amazon.com Account Access Web Page. Just pressing the Password button in the Card Info Window automatically sets this password field. It is not even necessary to use Paste!
Many sites, like in the example above, actually require two pieces of information. A user ID and a password. You can use the ID & Password button to enter these two fields automatically. After pressing the ID & Password button the dialog is dismissed.
You can even try to also automatically submit the form. Pressing the Submit button will first enter the user ID and password field and then submit the form.
Below an example where you can press the Submit button of the Card Info Window and you will successfully log into My Yahoo!.
This concludes the Getting Started with Web Confidential section. By now, you have been acquainted with the main features of Web Confidential. You can explore the program further on your own or use the Reference section to learn about addi- tional specific features.