There are any number of handy utilities I use to streamline the development process and general computing activities which consume much of my time. In many ways, I am not much different than any other “power user” who has assembled various software tools and shortcuts to improve workflow and remove as much repetitive drudgery as possible from daily routines. After all, there is so much fascinating information to review online, not to mention paying work demanding attention, why spend any more time than necessary performing such mundane tasks as filling out online forms and the seemingly infinite number of user name and password screens which present themselves?
Firefox, my current personal browser of choice, offers some built in functionality when it comes to filling out forms and storing user name and password information. The inclusion of these features is most welcome and another significant improvement over the aging Internet Explorer interface. For those of you who haven’t yet tried Firefox, you will soon become addicted to the tab browsing available with this browser but there is so much more. In fact, Firefox is highly extensible and there are a wide variety of plug-ins which allow you to customize the Firefox browser in any number of ways. (Be sure to check out these plug ins online if you have downloaded the browser.) But I digress. I will leave a listing of my favorite Firefox extensions for another article.
I have experimented with several tools which automate the sign in process and have been using a PC Magazine Editor’s Choice, Roboform on a trial basis off and on for a couple of months. The product can be downloaded for free but has limited functionality. The Pro version allows for unlimited username and password creation and several additional features. For a complete list of Roboform’s Pro features, click here. While I am always anxious to find freeware and shareware alternatives, any software which contributes to your productivity, and in this case online security (more on this later), is certainly worth paying for (in this case Roboform Pro retails for $29.95 as of this writing).
If this article were simply an advertisement for the software, it wouldn’t warrant my time or yours. (I never write on behalf of vendors; nor do I ever profit from purchases made through this web site unless I expressly state a link is an “affiliate” link in the body of an article. (The Google Adsense Ads which are clearly listed support this site and are, by definition, affiliate links.) What makes the story interesting is that Roboform appears to have a significant conflict with the latest Firefox release (version 1.06) which is crashing my browser every time it loads. Resolution of this issue, is taking time and negating much of the time savings the program has created for me during my evaluation period. To be fair, it appears some, perhaps all, of the problems I am experiencing are a result of having an older version of this company’s Firefox plug-in installed. A completely new installation may not experience the issues which have taken up several hours of my day. I will certainly publish the solution, and any additional insights as to its origin, when the problem is ultimately resolved.
Still, this software conflict highlights challenges faced by developers and end users...... Please read on.......