Switchers' Blog

1Password 3 Feature Spotlight: Edit in Browser

You're busy. You have stuff to do, your boss or professor has more stuff for you to do, and sometimes the last thing you want to deal with is changing a 1Password Login or updating a Credit Card so you can finish your online shopping and get back to avoiding all that stuff. This is why 1Password 3 takes integration to a whole new level, letting you edit your information in the browser on the fly, without opening 1Password itself.

This new feature, covertly called "Edit in Browser," is exactly what it sounds like: it lets you make changes to your Logins, Credit Cards, and Identities simply from 1Password's browser extension. You can even delete items if the situation calls for it.

You can access Edit in Browser from the 1Password extension, either via the "1P" button in your browser's toolbar, or the 1Password menubar item that you can enable for other supported apps like NetNewsWire. To edit a Login, Credit Card, or Identity, hold the Shift key when mousing over those menus in the 1P button (note for Firefox users: you have to hold Shift before you click the 1P button). You'll see an "Edit" badge appear before each item—click it.

The window that appears is the bread and butter of Edit in Browser (click the image above for a larger view). You have full control to change information, add tags (new!) and attachments (new!), and even customize the security access level of the item. When you're done, simply click "Save Changes" at the bottom right of the Edit in Browser window, and go back on about your business. In and out in record time, and you don't even have to touch the 1Password app.

If you need to delete an item quickly, hold Shift+Option in the 1P button. The "Edit" badge will instead be "Delete," and any item that suffers your mouse click will be moved to 1Password's trash, awaiting its final sentencing. You can also use the "Move to Trash" button from the Edit in Browser window to trash an item.

We hope you enjoy Edit in Browser, and as always, we love to hear your thoughts on new features like this. Be sure to check out the rest of our Feature Spotlight series that goes in-depth on new 1Password 3 features, including iPhone sync, Software Licenses, and 1PasswordAnywhere.

1Password 3 Feature Spotlight: iPhone sync

Let's be honest here: syncing 1Password with 1Password touch on your iPhone or iPod touch is pretty awesome. It's easy to set up, secure, and hella fast. In fact, you may be wondering whether it's possible to top our sync features in 1Password 3. With this post, I am happy to confirm that it is most certainly possible. But first, a little background.

When we released 1Password touch 2.0 earlier this year, we completely redesigned our Wi-Fi sync feature for iPhone and iPod touch. We greatly simplified the setup process and made it automatic, so anytime your Mac and iPhone are on the same network and you unlock 1Password touch on your device, a sync occurs without you needing to lift a finger.

Now in 1Password 3, you can lift a finger, if you want. Drawing some inspiration from iTunes, we built an entirely new syncing dashboard to give you more control over your device and what you sync. Setup is still super-simple, and by default, 1Password will automatically sync all of your Logins, Secure Notes, Wallet Items, and Software Licenses, as well as any folders that you organize them with.

But what if you want to bring along only your work Logins, or your banking Logins? Now you can create a couple of folders in 1Password, organize your 1Password items in any way you want, and then select only those folders in our new iPhone sync dashboard. 1Password touch will sync just the items in those folders with 1Password on your Mac, allowing you to scale back to the bare essentials when you want. In fact, 1Password touch Pro will even organize items on your device according to the 1Password folders folders on your Mac as well, keeping you even more organized while on-the-go.

Of course, what would a redesigned iPhone sync dashboard be without a "replace everything on my device" option? If you ever need to start from scratch on your iPhone or iPod touch, or you just want to do some house cleaning, you can now easily perform a clean sync and replace everything on the device with your 1Password items and folders.

But wait, there will be more

Now we've heard that at least one or two of you would like to be able to sync 1Password touch on your i-device over the Internet, without having to be in the same room, or perhaps even the same country, as your Mac. On this topic I have good news and not-really-bad news and will, overall, add up to a smile on your face.

The good news is that we're working really hard on a way to sync through "the cloud" using MobileMe or any standard WebDAV server. This means that MobileMe customers will be able to enjoy an effortless sync setup, and other users with their own compatible web hosts can get their advanced geekery on.

The not-really-bad news is that this sync won't arrive with 1Password 3.0. This feature will take some time, and we have more work to do on the Agile Keychain and 1Password for both platforms in order to provide the awesome experience our users have come to expect. Instead of making a promise on this feature's availability that we might not meet, I'll just say it's "coming soon." It will be released in a free 3.x upgrade, and that's about all we can talk about for now.

This about covers the new iPhone sync features in 1Password 3. Be sure to look back through our 1Password 3 Feature Spotlight series to see in-depth looks at other major features that are on their way, and stay tuned here on the blog for future posts as well.

1Password 3 Feature Spotlight: Software Licenses

Now that we've let the 1PasswordAnywhere cat out of the figurative bag, our 1Password 3 Feature Spotlight series continues with a look at Software Licenses. In the spirit of providing more secure and convenient access to your website logins, text notes, and wallet information, 1Password 3 will make it easier, and even attractive, to organize the software you own.

For some time, 1Password 2 has allowed you to collect software licenses under the Wallet category. This worked pretty well, but our users quickly began asking us to separate licenses into their own category with unique feature. As a company that likes to put smiles on the faces of its customers, we agreed that a dedicated area for Software Licenses was a great idea.

In 1Password 3, you will be able to catalog and search through your software licenses in a new, dedicated Vault category. Thanks to a major UI overhaul in 1Password 3, your licenses will be showcased with style, featuring gorgeous icons in both the master item list and individual item views.

"But I don't want to go through all that work of collecting icons and dragging and dropping an application onto each new license I add to 1Password 3!" you exclaim. Never fear! We don't want to do all that work either, which is why 1Password 3 will search your Mac each time you add a license, looking for the relevant application and automatically snagging a copy of its icon. In rare cases when 1Password may not be able to grab an icon (perhaps for plugins or if you spell the application name differently), you can simply drag and drop the application (or its installer) into 1Password to add your own icon. Heck, if icons aren't your thing, you can drag in a photo from your Mac or even a product shot from the developer's website. You are in control of how 1Password 3 represents your software.

Of course, some developers require you to keep track of not just a license code, but an actual file which you must use to verify that you own an application. This is no sweat for 1Password 3, as the new support for attachments extends to Software Licenses, allowing you to include just about any type of file(s) in a license (pictured above, a message is getting dragged out of Mail and into a 1Password 3 as a Software License attachment). Not only will these files be copied into your Agile Keychain, ensuring that they sync between all your Macs if you use a service like Dropbox, they will be encrypted along with all your other 1Password data.

Last, but not least, is that Software Licenses can be tagged in 1Password 3. Tags offer another layer of organization for your 1Password information, allowing you to filter and search your items according to any system you create. Just like attachments, we'll talk more about tags and what 1Password can do with them in a future post. Also, remember that since we're still in beta, some features and UI elements may be tweaked for maximum awesomeness by the time we officially ship.

That about covers Software Licenses in 1Password 3, but we have a lot more to talk about in our Feature Spotlight series. Stay tuned to the blog here for more posts that cover some of the major (and wonderfully minor) new features coming in our largest upgrade ever.

1Password 3 Feature Spotlight: 1PasswordAnywhere

Now that we've outed some of 1Password 3's hottest new features, it's time to start exploring some of them in our Feature Spotlight series. First up is one of our most-requested features: 1PasswordAnywhere.

1Password is a Mac application, but what about the times when you're visiting that one family member for the holidays who hasn't switched yet, and you need your webmail password? Maybe you're on Linux at work, or simply someone else's Mac, and you need to quickly look up some FTP credentials or a Secure Note? If you don't sync 1Password with one of our 1Password touch apps for iPhone and iPod touch, 1PasswordAnywhere has you covered.

As the successor to my1Password, which we began working on in 2007, 1PasswordAnywhere allows you to view your 1Password keychain anywhere you have a modern browser and an Internet connection or other access to your keychain. Whether you keep (or copy) your keychain on a USB thumb drive or use Dropbox, our favorite syncing service, you can now decrypt and view your keychain on Windows and Linux PCs virtually anywhere you are. This provides the convenience of always having your keychain with you (no matter what computer you're on) while ensuring that your data is kept as secure and encrypted as possible.

How to use 1PasswordAnywhere

1PasswordAnywhere (1PA) is built into every Agile Keychain used by 1Password 3. To use 1PA when away from your Mac and 1Password, you will need access to your Agile Keychain using something like a USB thumb drive or online with Dropbox. Here's a short run-through on how to use 1PasswordAnywhere:

1. On non-Mac operating systems your keychain will appear as a regular folder (don't worry, all your data is still very secure. Open that folder
2. Open the first file inside of your keychain, called 1Password.html, in a modern browser like Firefox or Safari (sorry IE users, but it's going to take some extra time to get 1PA working in your browser)
3. You will be greeted with a password prompt. Enter your Master Password, and you can view and copy all your data from a replication of 1Password 3's new UI

In fact, your keychain will appear as a folder in Dropbox, and there is no need to download it. Just click the 1Password.html file, as 1PasswordAnywhere will "do the right thing" and run properly in your browser.

Note to MobileMe iDisk users: Many of our customers have reported that iDisk is too slow for syncing 1Password keychains, so we strongly recommend against using it. However, you can place a copy of your keychain on your iDisk before going on a trip and download a copy later to access 1PasswordAnywhere. Unfortunately, you cannot start 1PasswordAnywhere straight from me.com like you can with Dropbox.

What you can do with 1PasswordAnywhere

You will find that you can view all of your data is in 1PasswordAnywhere, including Logins, Identities, Secure Notes, Software Licenses, Wallet Items, generated Passwords, and even the Trash. You can copy and paste information into shopping carts and login forms, and your Login passwords are hidden until you click "reveal" next to each one.

Watch the demo video above to see 1PasswordAnywhere in action on Windows and a Mac. In a nut, 1PasswordAnywhere is your 1Password home away from 1Password.

David Chartier
Chief Media Producer, Agile Web Solutions