PasswordWallet

for

Mac OS X

For Mac OS X 10.12 or Later (Including mac OS Monterey)

Version: 4.8.13
Price: $19.99

PasswordWallet for Mac OS X

Manual

Table of Contents

What's inside

This manual provides a functional description of all PasswordWallet's features, and where possible, examples.

Getting Started

PasswordWallet is simply a place to store all of your usernames and passwords. The file PasswordWallet saves your passwords in is scrambled very securely such that only someone with the correct master password can access it. The scrambling, or encryption technology we use is called BlowFish, and his been licensed for use in PasswordWallet by the United States Department of Commerce and the National Security Agency. It's really good stuff! (Talk about red tape!)

  1. When you double-click PasswordWallet, you're faced with a empty wallet window.
  2. Click "New Entry" to add an entry to your wallet.
  3. Continue adding all of your passwords into the wallet window.
  4. When you're done, save the file. You'll be prompted to enter the master password.
  5. That's it! Continue to use the functionality available from PasswordWallet's many menus.

Auto-typing

Auto-typing is PasswordWallet's most popular feature. Of all of the features described in this manual, Auto-typing is the one that will save you the most time. It's actually quite addictive.

Auto-typing simply types your username and password into a web site when you tell it to.

To have PasswordWallet type your password for you:

  1. Confirm that your “Preferences:Timings:Clear auto-typing” is 30 seconds or more.
  2. Go to a web page with the "Go to URL" function.
  3. Once the page has loaded, place the insertion point in the "username" field on the web page.
  4. Hold down the option-key on your keyboard until you hear a beep.
  5. After you hear the beep, release the option-key.
  6. You're done! Your username and password will be typed for you!

TIP: Instead of setting the URL in your entry to a complicated login URL, try using the business' home page instead. A 30 second time out (or more) should be more than enough time to click the “login” link on the home page and initiate auto-typing with the option-key!

TIP: When editing an entry, see the popup-menus to the right of the username and password fields for more auto-typing options.

Hints and Tips for Power Users

Shortcut Bar:

  • Clicking the globe icon is the same choosing the "Go to URL" menu item.
  • Clicking the face icon is the same choosing the "Copy Username" menu item.
  • Clicking the key icon is the same choosing the "Copy Password" menu item.
  • Clicking the keyboard icon is the same choosing the "Perform Auto-typing" menu item.

Keyboard shortcuts:

  • Right arrow key: Expand selected entry.
  • Left arrow key: Collapse selected entry.

Type Ahead:

  • Type first few characters of the title you want to find.
  • Type the option-tab key to find the next title in alphabetical order (irrespective of "Sort" menu selection).
  • Type shift-tab to reverse-find the previous title in alphabetical order.
  • Type Ahead is not case sensitive.

Other Tips:

  • Hold down the control-key when clicking (or right-click) the Entry List for a convenient contextual menu. Items in this menu mimic items in the menubar.
  • Hold down the option-key while opening a record to view it in a separate window. Open as many editor windows as you like.
  • Use the "Find" from the "Edit" menu to search all fields of all entries.
  • Use the "Home" and "End" keys to express scroll to the top or bottom of the wallet window.
  • Use "Page Up" and "Page Down" to scroll through the wallet window.
  • Hold down the option-key while selecting "Set Color" to revert to default Apple Blue (like iTunes).
  • Need more tabs to move between fields when auto-tying? Just insert ‘•’ (option-8) characters into your username or password and they’ll be substituted for tab characters. (Be sure to turn on the preference for this!)
  • Same as above, but ‘¶’ (option-7) will be substituted for a carriage return. Put it at the end of your password and PasswordWallet will hit the 'login' button for you automatically!
  • Use [:OtherEntryName:] for a username or password, and the other entry’s username or password will be used for copying to the clipboard or auto-typing. This is really useful if you have the same password for multiple URLs within a single company or domain.
  • Hold down the option-key while deleting entries to bypass the delete warning dialog.
  • Hold down the option-key while opening a file to reset the document's window position to the default location and size.
  • Hold down the shift-key while finding a category to find more than one category at a time.
  • Drag another PasswordWallet document to your PasswordWallet window. A file://URL will be created that will open the document. And Auto-typing will be initiated as always.
  • Drag a PasswordWallet document to your PasswordWallet window. And set the password field to the password for the file. Opening the URL will open the linked document.

Serious users only:

  • PasswordWallet for Mac has a command-line interface. To get started, execute the following from terminal: PasswordWallet.app/Contents/MacOS/PasswordWallet -h

Menus

File Menu

  • New Wallet File -Create a new wallet file in PasswordWallet. The number of files PasswordWallet can have open at one time is limited only by the amount of memory in your system.
  • Open Wallet File -Open an existing PasswordWallet file. Using this menu item, open old "Password File" catalogs from PasswordWallet Version 1.0, or new files created with PasswordWallet Version 2. In version 2, files no longer need to be named "Password File" and no longer need to be saved in the same folder as PasswordWallet.
  • Open Recent -Open an existing PasswordWallet file that has been opened recently.
  • Close -Close the top-most PasswordWallet document. If "Automatically Save" is checked in the "Wallet" menu, any changes you've made will be automatically saved, and you won't be asked whether or not you want to save changes. See ("Wallet Menu" below).
  • Save -Manually save changes to a wallet file that you have changed. This menu item is disabled if there are no changes to save.
  • Save As... -Save the top-most PasswordWallet file as a new file. Before performing this operation, you may select "Change Password" from the "Wallet" menu to save the file with a different password.
  • Revert... -Revert the document to exactly as it appeared the last time it saved. Reverting will delete all changes you've made since the last save.
  • Import Text File... -See Importing Data/li>
  • Export to Safari bookmarklets... -Please see the help for Export for more information.
  • Export to Stand-alone encrypted web pages... -Please see the help for Export for more information.
  • Export to Android or Palm webOS encrypted web pages... -Please see the help for Export for more information.
  • Export → Visible Entries to Text File... -Export the visible (found) entries to a unencrypted UTF-8 Tab Delimited Text File.
  • Export → Visible Entries to iPod File... -Export the visible (found) entries to a unencrypted UTF-8 human readable text file suitable for reading on an iPod. Note: iPod files cannot be re-imported into PasswordWallet.
  • Print... -Print entries from your wallet. You will be prompted to print only visible (found) entries, selected entries or all entries.
  • Quit -Quit PasswordWallet. You will be prompted to save each document that has been changed since it was opened. If you are prompted, push "Save" to save the changes, "Don't Save" to not save your changes, or "Cancel" to abort the quitting process. Note - if you have AutoSave set for the wallet, you won't be asked to save when you quit.

Edit Menu

  • Undo/Redo -Undo typing into an entry's field.
  • Cut, Copy, and Paste -Provide standard system clipboard functionality for entry fields. These items also copying and pasting of password entries between open files.
  • Copy username -Copy the selected wallet entry's username to the clipboard. The clipboard will be cleared exactly 30 seconds later. The clipboard will not be cleared if you've copied something else before the 30 second expiration has elapsed. PasswordWallet must be the active application in order to clear the clipboard. If it is not, if the clipboard still contains the username, the clipboard will be cleared the next time PasswordWallet is brought to the foreground.
  • Copy password -Copy the selected wallet entry's password to the clipboard. The clipboard will be cleared exactly 30 seconds later. The clipboard will not be cleared if you've copied something else before the 30 second expiration has elapsed. PasswordWallet must be the active application in order to clear the clipboard. If it is not, if the clipboard still contains the password, the clipboard will be cleared the next time PasswordWallet is brought to the foreground.
  • Copy URL -Copy the selected wallet entry's URL to the clipboard. The clipboard is NOT cleared after a URL is copied.
  • Perform Auto-typing -See description below.
  • Find -Presents a dialog into which you can type text to find within the "name" field of each wallet entry. The text used the last time you performed a find is entered by default. The first found wallet entry will be selected. If the entered string is not found, your computer will beep. The find command is case insensitive, so searching for "abc" will find records containing "ABC" as well as "AbC". Click "Select all items found" to find all items that contain the query string and select them all at once. The quantity of records found can be found at the bottom of your Password window.
  • Find Next -Perform find with the last entered string. If the text is not found again, your computer will beep.
  • Preferences - Show the preferences dialog for the PasswordWallet application. See below for more information on the preferences dialog.

Sort Menu

  • by Title -Sort all entries by their title.
  • by URL -Sort all entries by their URL.
  • by Username -Sort all entries by their username.
  • by Category -Sort all entries by their category.
  • by Password -Sort all entries by their password.
  • by Date Modified -Sort all entries by their modification date. Although only dates are displayed in the Wallet window, times (with seconds) are also saved transparently with entries.
  • by Date Last Accessed -Sort all entries by their last access date. Each time the username, password or URL of an entry is accessed for auto-typing or other functionality, the last access date is set. This date is independent of the modified date.
  • Tip: Hold down the option-key or the shift-key to sort reverse. Sort by Date Last Accessed to see most recently accessed items.

Wallet Menu

  • Create New Entry - Display a dialog box where all fields for a single entry are entered. The Edit menu commands work in these fields. The fields are as follows:
    • Title -The wallet entry's title.
    • URL -The Universal Resource Locator. Usually a web site or ftp site address of the form "http://mysite.com" or "ftp://mysite.com". This URL can be automatically opened from the "Go URL" command. See below for more information.
    • Username -The username to be saved with the entry.
    • Password -The password to be saved with the entry.
    • Confirm Password -Type the password again to make sure you got it right!
    • Confirm Checkbox -Check this box to turn off the bullets and use only the top password field.
    • Category -Use the category popup menu to select or create categories for entries.
    • Default Browser -Use the browser popup menu to choose an alternate browser to use when loading the URL.
    • Notes -Up to 32000 characters of notes may be placed in this field. Anything more will be automatically truncated to 32000 characters.

  • Edit Entry -Edit the selected wallet entry. This dialog is identical to the "Create New Entry" dialog described above. You can also execute this command by double-clicking a password entry. Hold down the option-key to open the entry in its own window. This is handy if you want to edit two entries at once.
  • Delete Selection... -Remove the selected entries.
  • Duplicate Selection... -Duplicate the selected entries.
  • Show Bullets -Toggle hide and show all passwords in the PasswordWallet window. Hiding is not the same as collapsing. Hiding displays bullets over information. Collapsing physically collapses the cell to only one line so only the title is visible.
  • Go to URL and Auto-type -Go to the URL (web site, ftp site, etc) for a the selected wallet entry and prepare the username and password for auto-typing.
  • Auto-type -Prepare the username and password for auto-typing.
  • Collapse All -Turns the triangle on each wallet entry to the up position revealing only the title of each entry.
  • Expand All -Turns the triangle on each wallet entry to the down position revealing all information about an entry.
  • Show entry full-screen -Show's the username and password on screen in a really big window for viewing from across a room.
  • Background Color -Change the "stripe" color of all wallet entries. Hold down the Option key on the keyboard to revert back to default grey.
  • Change Password -Change the password necessary to gain access to the PasswordWallet. The user must know the original password to change the password to the wallet. If you want the master password stored in the Mac OS Keychain, check the "Save in Keychain" checkbox. (Mac OS X Only.)
  • Automatically Save -Select this item to check or uncheck it. If this item is checked, the document will be saved automatically after changes are made. Otherwise, when the document closes, you will be prompted by PasswordWallet to save your changes. Automatic saves are performed when the document is closed. Automatic saves are also performed when you synchronize your wallet file with your Palm.

Category Menu

  • Assign a new category to selection -Create a new category and assign it to the selected items in the wallet window.
  • Assign Category to Selection -Assign an existing category to the selected items in the wallet window.
  • Rename Category -Rename a category.
  • Show Categories -Choose whether to show all categories or just show those items that are not assigned a category.
  • Show Only Specific Category -Choose a category to show. Only items of the selected category will be visible.

The PasswordWallet Window

The PasswordWallet window displays all of the wallet entries in a list. By clicking on an item its data may be removed, edited, or copied to the clipboard. See the menu items described above for more information.

Window Toolbar

  • "New Entry" button -is identical to the "New Wallet Entry" menu item discussed above. Click this button to create a new wallet entry.
  • Find Box -Type into this box to search for all entries containing the entered text. All fields will be searched.
  • Find Box Menu -is the menu that appears when clicking on the magnifier in the Find box. Choose a category from the menu to filter quickly by category.

Wallet Items List

  • Double click wallet entries to edit them or view their notes.
  • Use the up and down arrow keys to select the previous or next wallet entry.
  • Tap the Return key or Enter key on the keyboard to edit the selected entry or view its notes wallet entry.
  • Use the left or right arrow keys to expand or collapse the currently selected wallet entry.
  • When double-clicking an expanded entry, double-clicking on a field will select that field for editing by default.

Preferences

General

  • When opening documents -
    • Show bullets -Always show bullets when a file is opened.
    • Don't show bullets -Don't show bullets when a file is opened.
    • Use last saved format -Show bullets if bullets were shown when the file was last saved.

  • Collapse all rows -Collapse all rows in the wallet file. Otherwise the rows will be expanded the way they were when the file was last saved.
  • Don't ask for initial password if available in Keychain -If you store your master password in the MacOS Keychain, PasswordWallet will only ask you for a password if the entry in the Keychain is incorrect.
  • Quit after the last document closed -Quit PasswordWallet after the last document is closed.
  • Set keyboard focus -When opening documents typing characters on the keyboard can (1) search for those characters inside your wallet or (2) find entries whose titles begin with what you type. Use the radio buttons to switch between the styles when opening any document.
  • Default file -The file to open when PasswordWallet is launched. If this item is empty or cleared, a blank document will appear by default. Hint: Drag a file to the box to enter it's path automatically.
  • File modifications - (that trigger a Save when closing)
    • Update Last Modified Date when opening file -When your wallet file is opened, the last opened date will be set to the time the file was opened. Some users may not like this because it will appear to the system that the file contents have changed when they may not have.
    • Record date and time when accessing an entry -When accessing the data in a record through the shortcut buttons, a last-access date is saved with the record. Check this box if updating this value should also set the file to be modified and thus saved when closing.

  • Auto-typing
    • Substitute special characters when auto-typing -Enter these characters into your username or password field if you need extra tabs to move the cursor from one field to another in your web browser. Enter the paragraph marker to hit return, which usually pushes the button on the web page. It's best to experiment with this to see what works for each web page.
    • Beep at start of auto-typing -To start auto-typing, hold down the option key. Check this item if you want to hear a beep when PasswordWallet has detected the beep.
    • Beep at end of auto-typing -Beep after everything's been typed.
    • Show global window when auto-typing -When auto-typing is initiated, PasswordWallet can put up a global floating window with a button in it with instructions to perform auto-typing. Check this box to show th global auto-typing window.
    • Show instructions in global window -Whether or not to show instructions inside the global auto-typing window. This preference mirrors the position of the disclosure triangle in the global auto-typing window.

Timings

  • Clear auto-typing -The amount of time before auto-typing times out after it's been initiated.
  • Revert to bullets -Specify the amount of time before expanded entries show bullet characters instead of plain text usernames and passwords.
  • Clear clipboard -Specify the number of seconds after a "Copy" that the clipboard should be cleared.
  • Save & close idle file -The amount of time a file should be allowed to stay open before it is closed automatically by the software.

Passwords

  • Template - Insert special tags into the template field that, when generating a password, are replaced with random. If this field is left blank, "xX#xX#xX#" is used. The following are the tokens that will be substituted when a password is generated:
    • x - Substituted for a random lower case character.
    • X - Substituted for a random upper case character.
    • w - Substituted for a random word from a dictionary.
    • p - Substituted for random punctuation.
    • x - Substituted for a random upper case character.
    • # - Substituted for a random digit.
    • s - Substituted for a random phonetic syllable. If two are side by side, the second will be pronounceable from the first.
    • {a:b:c} - Repeated substitution. Repeat "a" between "b" and "c" times. Examples:
      • {!:2:4} - Insert between 2 and 4 exclamation points.
      • {#:3:5} - Insert between 3 and 5 random digits.
      • {##:3:5} - Insert between 6 and 10 random digits.
      • {-:0:2} - Insert a "", "-" or "--".
      • { {#xX:0:1}:1:2} - "#xX" substituted 0 or 1 times, and then try again between 1 and two times.
      • {s:2:3}{#:1:2}{_:0:1}Xx{s:2:3} - Left as an exercise for the reader.
    • [abc] - Set substitution. Choose a random element from between the "[" and "]". Examples:
      • [abc] - Insert the letter a, b or c.
      • {[x#]:3:5} - Insert between 3 and 5 lower case letters or digits.
  • Completely Random -A random password that's not pronounceable that contains letters, numbers and underscores.
  • Phonetic Random -A Pronounceable Password whose syllables may actually sound like something.
  • Save old password in notes when generating -When a new password is generated, it replaces the contents of the password field. By enabling this item, the old password will be copied to the end of the notes of an entry as an easy way to keep a record of old passwords.
  • Draw digits within passwords with red -When enabled, and a record is expanded, and bullets are off, digits will be drawn in red. Colors and symbols in black. This helps avoid confusion between upper case 'i' and the number 1, and upper case "Oh" and the number 0. Similarly for lower-case "L".
  • Show samples when generating -When generating random passwords when viewing a record, drop down a list of randomly generated passwords to choose from.

Entry List

  • Show shortcut buttons -Turn on and off individual shortcut buttons in all wallet rows.
  • When typing a Tab into the Entry List -Specify behavior when a Tab is typed into the Entry List.
  • Show category in rows -When enabled, the name of each category will be drawn in light grey to the right of the title. If there is not enough room to draw the category, try widening your wallet window.

Synchronization

Please read the dedicated synchronization documentation to learn about syncing between iPhone, Windows Mobile, Palm and two computers.

Type Ahead

Within the list view of all passwords, the first few characters of an item can be typed it to select it. To proceed to the next item alphabetically, push option-tab. To proceeed to the previous item alphabetically, push shift-tab.

Auto-typing (Type your username and password for you)

To have PasswordWallet type your username and password into a web page for you, simply do the following:

  1. Use any of the following PasswordWallet functions: "Go to URL", "Copy Username", "Copy Password", "Copy URL".
  2. Wait for your web page to load.
  3. Place the insertion point in the field that should receive the requested username.
  4. Hold down the option-key until you hear a beep.
  5. Release the option-key.
  6. You're done! Your username and password should be typed for you. If they're not, see below.

Auto-typing tab:

For sites that require you to complete more than two fields (e.g., name, barcode, password), you can put two or more items in one password field. One way would be to put name, auto-type tab, and barcode ("name•barcode") in the User ID field and the password in the password field.

To use Auto-typing pause-resume:

Auto-tying may be paused and resumed. This feature is ultimately useful for web sites that require one password on a first page, and a separate password on a second page.

For example (#1): username is "Harry", password1 is "abc" and password2 is "def". Between password1 and password2 you want auto-typing to stop, and then resume when the second web page loads.

For example (#2): For sites that need both a credit card and a security code for purchases: Create a card without a URL. Put your credit card number and security code in the User ID field, separated by an Auto-Type pause-resume. Whenever you need to enter that info on a web site, select the card, type command-U, put the cursor in the credit card field, and press the option-key. Select the security code field and press the option-key again. (If the site doesn't need a security code, be sure to cancel auto-typing.)

To tell PW where to pause/continue auto-typing, just place the cursor between password1 and password2 in the password field in PasswordWallet. From the little menu to the right of the password field, select the "Pause-resume character".

PasswordWallet will pause auto-typing when this character is encountered. After it pauses, position the cursor where you want auto-typing to continue, and press the "Type Username and Password" button or option-key again.

To use Auto-typing delay:

Some web sites have really poorly written Javascript that tries to monitor keystrokes. Sometimes the intrusion of these Javascripts can cause auto-typed keystrokes to be missed. For this reason auto-typing can be slowed down.

To slow down auto-typing, place the cursor in the username and password field where you want slow auto-typing to begin. To the right of these fields is a popup menu. Choose to insert the "Delay" character.

The first time this character is encountered, auto-typing will be slowed down 20x. The next time this character is encountered, full speed auto-typing will be resumed.

Also, use '•' (option-8) for tab and '¶' (option-7) for return to help auto-typing move between fields.

Auto-typing reverse-tab:

Sometimes a web site will be "helpful" and move the cursor forward to the next field for you without you typing a tab character. This sometimes results in the cursor ending up in the wrong place. If this is the case, you can add a reverse-tab character to the password field to make the cursor go back one field. This character can be inserted from the little popup menu to the right of the username or password field when editing an entry.

Importing Data (File Menu)

Use this item to import tab-delimited or csv formatted text files containing your passwords into the top-most PasswordWallet window. An import operation cannot be undone, so always make a backup of your PasswordWallet document before performing this operation. The CSV import format is compatible with the default CSV export from Microsoft Excel. CSV files should be suffixed with ".csv". Tab-delimited text files should be suffixed with ".txt" or ".text".

The character set of the imported file should be UTF-8. Straight ASCII ("Text") characters are also fine. (As ASCII is a subset of UTF-8.) Files may contain Macintosh, Unix or Windows line endings. PasswordWallet can import any file it exports. Because tabs delimit the data within records and line endings delimit records, tabs and line endings that should be within fields need to replaced. On import '»' (option-shift-\) will be replaced with a tab and '¬' (option-L) will be replaced with a line ending within a field.

A spreadsheet program can be used to create files for import into PasswordWallet. Just save the file as Tab Delimited Text.

Note: If you have a username or password that is all digits and begins with a zero (0), Excel may not display the leading zero by default. There are Number Formatting options in Excel to change this behavior.

After selecting the file to import, PasswordWallet will display a column view of all of your data. Select the fields into which you'd like to import the data at the top of the table. Push "Import" when you are satisfied with your field selection.

Requirements

PasswordWallet requires Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later or Windows XP or later. PasswordWallet will not run under Mac OS 9.

Upgrading

  • PasswordWallet 4 can read files from any previous version.
  • Simply open the file with PasswordWallet 4 and it will be upgraded to the new version.
  • PasswordWallet will always backup the old file before it attempts to open it.
  • PasswordWallet will always tell you what the name of the backup is.

Automator

The Synchronize Files Automator Action is built in to the PasswordWallet application. Just be sure PasswordWallet.app is in your Applications folder so Automator will find it. To use the Synchronize Files Automator Action, do the following:

  1. Run Automator.
  2. Under "Applications", click "PasswordWallet".
  3. Under "Actions", drag "Synchronize Files" to the workflow area of the Automator window.

Now the Automator action needs some input files.

  1. Drag two files from the Finder to the space above the Synchronize Files automator action.
  2. These two files will be used for the synchronization.
  3. Push Run.

Installing PasswordWallet for Mac OS X

PasswordWallet for Macintosh can be downloaded from its home page. The downloaded archive contains the following files:

  1. ReadMe Document -A document containing last minute changes about the release.
  2. PasswordWallet -The PasswordWallet application program.
  3. S3 Register Products - After your purchase a registration number, use this program to register it on your machine. Your purchase helps us bring you even more great software!

The documents you create with PasswordWallet can be saved anywhere on your hard drive or server, and may be named anything you like. Files no longer need to be named "Password File" and no longer need to be saved in the same folder as PasswordWallet. This restriction was removed in PasswordWallet 2.0.

Be sure to backup your password wallet often! A corrupted file may not be able to be decrypted!

Installing PasswordWallet for Windows

PasswordWallet for Windows can be downloaded from its home page. The downloaded contains an installer. Run this installer.

  1. The PasswordWallet.exe
  2. An item to uninstall in Add/Remove programs.
  3. A ReadMe file.
  4. Various support files.

The documents you create with PasswordWallet can be saved anywhere on your hard drive or server, and may be named anything you like.

Be sure to backup your password wallet often! A corrupted file may not be able to be decrypted!

Support Shareware

We work very hard to provide you with high quality software. Download our software for macOS and Windows for free - if you like it and wish to continue using it, purchase it online from our Purchase Page. There you'll find information about multiple copy discounts and a price list for all of our products. Your payments will help us offer you even more!