This tab has the most important and commonly used elements.
The following bits of information are associated with each
password entry:
Group: A name for grouping (organizing) several related entries
Title: A friendly name for a password entry
User name: The user name
Password: The password, with a password strength meter beneath it
URL: The URL (website) associated with this entry
Email: An email address associated with this entry
Notes: Free-form general notes
Custom Fields: User-defined named values that can be added to the entry as needed.
Only the Title and Password fields are required; all others are optional.
An inactive Authentication Code field indicates that no Authentication Secret has been set for this entry (see Additional Tab).
When an Authentication Secret is set, the field is enabled, and the current Authentication Code may be displayed by clicking on the "eye" symbol that appears to the right of the field:
Clicking on the animated button next to the "eye" will copy the current Authentication Code (6 digit value) to the clipboard.
The value changes every 30 seconds, and the clipboard will be updated accordingly until either the database is locked or something else is placed on the clipboard.
The Notes field is intended for short texts, and is
limited to 30,000 characters. Whilst it is possible to add more than this limit when the entry is added,
warnings will be issued when the database is re-opened. The Notes field will be truncated
to this limit if the entry is edited. However, if the entry is protected or the database is opened
in read-only mode, then it can be viewed without any truncation.
Custom Fields is where you can add your own named fields to each password entry. For each custom field, you can specify a name and a value,
as well as specifying if the value will be displayed or displayed as "******" (masked).
There's no limit on the number of custom fields you can add, but each field name must be unique for the entry, and cannot be empty.
To copy a value to the clipboard, right-click the entry, select Copy Custom Field Value from the context menu, and then select a custom field.
In addition, the following fields may be set in this tab:
URL: The URL associated with the entry. If this field is not empty, then the "Go" button
is enabled. If the protocol is not specified, then "http://" is assumed
(e.g., "www.foo.net" is the same as "http://www.foo.net"). Clicking on the Go button to the right
of the URL field will open the default browser on the specified URL. See the following notes
for more information.
email: The email address associated with this entry. Note
that this is meant for keeping an e-mail address associated with the
site, e.g., support@myvendor.com. If the site requires an e-mail
address as your login, it's much easier to set your email address in
the Username field.
If this field is not empty, then the "Send" button is enabled. Clicking on this button will
invoke the default mail program with the To: field set to the specified address.
See the following notes
for more options.
A few details about URL handling:
By default, Password Safe will use the browser that your
PC usually opens web pages with. If desired, you can specify an
alternate browser by
putting '[alt]' before the URL, e.g., "[alt]http://www.foo.net". This
is useful, for example, if your default browser is Firefox, and you
wish to access a website that works best with Chrome. To
configure an alternate browser, use the
"Manage → Options → Misc." dialog box.
If '{alt}' is put before the URL, then it is passed
'as-is' to the alternate browser, that is, without adding 'http://' if
no protocol is specified. This is useful if the alternate browser is a
remote access application, e.g., an SSH client. [ssh] will achieve the
same effect.
The email address is according to the standard rules (per RFC 2368):
The address can be one or more valid email addresses separated by a
semicolon, using 'Internet-safe' characters. Use %20 for the space
character.
The address can be followed by one or more name-value pairs. The first
pair should be prefixed by a "?" and any additional pairs should be prefixed
by an ampersand (&). The name can be one of the following strings:
subject - followed by text to appear in the subject line of the message.
body - followed by text to appear in the body of the message.
CC - followed by addresses to be included in the "cc" (carbon copy) section of the message.
BCC - followed by addresses to be included in the "bcc" (blind carbon copy) section of the message.
Open the database where you wish to place the new entry
From the Edit menu, select Add Entry
Enter information into the Edit/View Entry dialog fields as necessary
Note: If a Group name is selected and then a new entry added,
that entry will have that Group name prefilled in the Edit/View Entry dialog.
If a name of a new group is added to the Group field, that Group will
be created.
If you wish, you can enter your own password into the password
field manually, or you can have Password Safe generate a new one
using the current Password Policy.
To have Password Safe generate a password, just click on Generate
in the Edit/View Entry dialog. If you're unhappy with the result,
you can click on Generate again, or edit the password manually.
A strength meter underneath the Password field gives a rough indication of the strength of the password. Red indicates a weak password, Yellow a medium-strength one, and Green indicates a strong password.
Note: If you're using a "single sign-on" system that allows
you to share the same password across different machines/servers/applications,
etc. you can setup Password Safe entries accordingly, so that changing
one password affects all other related entries. This is called "aliasing"
entries, and is explained in detail here.
Editing Existing Entries
Select the entry to edit from the list
Select Edit/View Entry from the Edit menu
Editing Existing Entries via the Tree View
Select the entry to edit from the list then:
Select Edit/View Entry from the Edit menu OR
Right-click on the entry and select Edit/View Entry
from the context menu
You can change the fields that are displayed in the tree view
directly. To do so:
Right-click on a group and select Rename Group from the
context menu OR
Press the shortcut key to rename (default F2) and overtype the
displayed text (format is "title [username] {password}").
Notes:
By default, usernames and passwords are not displayed in the Tree View. Displaying
the username and the password are controlled by preferences (see:
Display Tab). They work in a hierarchy i.e. passwords can
only be displayed if usernames are displayed.
Also by default, passwords are obscured when editing the entry. To see
the password associated with the entry click Show Password when editing it.
The title and password are the only mandatory fields for an entry. Therefore, if
they are omitted during rename, they will retain their previous values.
However, you may clear the username field, as long as it is being displayed,
by entering "[]" during the rename implying an empty value.
Since square and curly brackets are used to delimit the username and password,
it is NOT possible to rename an entry in place (e.g. using F2) if the title, username
(if displayed) or password (if displayed) contain any of these characters. Instead, you must
Edit the entry either via the Edit menu or by the right-click context menu as indicated
above.
Add a New Group via Tree View
Select Add Group from the Edit menu
Enter the Group name
Edit a Group Name
Right-click on the group and select Rename Group
from the context menu or
Select the group and press the shortcut to rename (default F2) and overtype the
group name.
Notes:
Group names can be "nested" i.e. placing a group name within/under another group name.
A group cannot be renamed to multiple groups through the Rename Group menu item or
shortcut, i.e., group "a" cannot be renamed to "x.y".
Protected Entries
If the entry is protected, you will not be able to change any fields until you unprotect
the entry via the Edit menu or right-click context menu.