Filling out Web forms is a necessary, though very annoying, part of online life. Every five minutes you fill out a form, whether for online shopping or any other reason, is another five minutes you'll never see again. And those five minutes can add up to hours over a year.
RoboForm Desktop 7 gives you that time back by automatically filling in forms for you. Install the program and then when you fill out a Web form in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, or Opera, RoboForm will create what it calls a passcard for that site, including all of your relevant information. The next time you go to that site, simply click the log-in in RoboForm, and it fills out the form for you.
There's a lot more to RoboForm than that. You can have it create passwords for you, can use it to jot down notes, and keep track of contacts and bookmarks. The program can also save your information on RoboForm servers, and sync it to multiple PCs, and even to smartphones, so that it's available wherever you are. These goodies are available in the paid version, but not in the free RoboForm (which is for personal and nonprofit use only). Vendor Siber Systems maintains a list of comparisons between the versions.
Roboform Desktop 7 integrates into your browser, so to log in to Web sites, you can simply click on a button on a browser toolbar. It also runs as a standalone client, so you have a choice of ways to use it.
Given that many browsers save your passwords for logging into Web sites, do you need to pay for RoboForm Desktop 7? RoboForm Desktop 7 does things that browsers don't--it remembers not just passwords, but all information on a Web form. In addition, browsers sometimes "forget" passwords, and RoboForm remembers them forever. So for those who tire of typing information into Web forms, and want a simple way to keep all their Web passwords in a secure place will likely want to pay. Others may well not think it worth the money, and may be content with their browsers or the free version.
--Preston Gralla
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