Press Release
Summary = A modern person devotes to the Internet a significant
part of his leisure or work time. Some may not even think of how
unpractical their time allocation is.
Press Release
Body = A modern person devotes to the Internet a significant part
of his leisure or work time. Some may not even think of how unpractical
their time allocation is. Living by the “as-long-as-it-works-I’m-happy”
principle we are depriving ourselves of a great number of conveniences
saving the precious time that we are always short of. Think about
it – do you use the remote control for your TV, the timer
on your radio, the answering machine, the cordless phone, etc.?
Why? Obviously, because all these things make our daily life easier,
adding comfort to it
so we don’t have to waste the time on unnecessary actions.
When applied to the Internet, the value of time increases, as the
“time is money” principle works in the Internet in the
literal sense.
This explains
the growing number of numerous “Internet accelerators”.
They try to solve the problem from the technical aspect, optimizing
the hardware and the system settings. This increases connection
speed to a certain extent. However, in practice
such solutions do not produce any tangible changes. Therefore, optimizing
the work of the user rather than the technical means is more efficient.
Certainly, it is
impossible to eliminate the human factor completely, but some applications
are quite capable of automating some of the most annoying processes
that take up a great amount of time. Thus, they turn the workaday
routine of the Internet dwellers into
an enjoyable pastime.
At present we
would like to consider applications that save you the trouble of
filling in endless forms that the Net abounds in – be it a
domain or mailbox
registration, signing into a forum or giving feed-back on an application,
searching for goods in an on-line shop or just filling in a questionnaire…
the list of
examples is endless. Filling in these forms takes about 10 minutes
on average. Isn’t it just the thing that is not worth wasting
your time on?
Besides, in my opinion, this process irritates 99% of Internet users
(perhaps, some actually truly enjoy entering their first and last
names and grandma’s favorite meal J), therefore, applications
that automate this process also save your nerve cells
(that, as we know, do not regenerate J). Therefore, the time wasted
on such actions is inevitably present in the “time-money-health”
chain. In a word, there is no point in describing the benefits of
such applications as they are obvious.
Let’s
move on from the concept of such software to a more detailed study
of definite examples. Perhaps, the best solution of this kind for
today is the application iNetFormFiller. The last 2.6 version is
a long way from iNetFormFiller v.2.5, differing by both new features
and optimized speed and correctness of operation. The application
has been considerably optimized for Russian speaking users. Many
peculiarities of Russian sites have been taken into consideration,
which has raised the quality of form filling to a new level.
This version
is equipped with the ability to convert RoboForm databases into
its own format, which certainly adds to the universality of the
application. In general RoboForm is an older application that in
its own time has gained a certain reputation. A younger, but rapidly
growing iNetFormFiller already surpasses RoboForm by many parameters.
However, until now older adherents of RoboForm have been finding
it difficult to switch to iNetFormFiller, because they had to enter
all data anew. Now they can painlessly test the new Internet helper
in action.
Also, the new
version of iNetFormFiller has expanded its scope, and now it fills
in not only Web forms, but other forms in Windows applications.
For example, at the start-up of WebMoney you are requested to enter
your purse number and password. So what will it be, entering a huge
number by hand and keeping some intricate password in your memory?
Never, if you have installed iNetFormFiller v2.6 that will neatly
enter all the information for you. I have tested it with many applications,
and every time it proved to be up to the mark. Isn’t it nice
when at every start-up of
your favorite application at request to enter some data all you
need to do is click one button, and voila, everything is filled
in? On the whole I am convinced that the choice in favor of iNetFormFiller
is quite logical and optimal. So let us move on to a more detailed
study of its features.
Consider its
appearance for a start.
It should be noted right away that the application supports many
languages, including Russian. It has an appealing user-friendly
interface, so you won’t find it difficult to come to know
the particulars of the application. Besides, the Help has been made
to last. The screenshot displays the main application window. It
is used mainly for setting, adding and removing various data, but
you will work in the Internet through Internet Explorer, as always.
If you think that you have to re-start iNetFormFiller every time
you need to fill in a form, you are wrong. You only need to launch
it once (or set it up so that it will automatically start with Windows).
As a result, an icon will appear in the tray.
But the most convenient thing is that it integrates with Internet
Explorer and is displayed in the form of a toolbar that in fact
acts as a sort of control center.
Now that we’ve
covered the interface, let’s consider the general workflow
with this application. From the very beginning it is very important
to set it up conveniently for the user, as these settings will determine
the further comfort of using iNetFormFiller features. After that,
just launch Internet Explorer and use it as usual. Whenever you
come across any fields that need to be filled in, iNetFormFiller
will do its work and you will just have to click one button –
‘fill the form’ (depending on the settings).
But how does
the application know, what and where needs to be recorded? It depends
on the data you provide. In iNetFormFiller all information is saved
in the so-called “profiles”. A profile contains various
fields, such as First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, etc. All of
them are split into groups to make searching and editing easier.
Certainly you can create your own fields, for example, “Dog
Name”. When a
certain page is loaded, iNetFormFiller analyzes its content and
due to its intellectual system of data processing accurately determines
the value of which
profile field it needs to enter into the appropriate Web form field.
Actually, there are many ways for storing data in such applications.
However, with profiles you achieve maximum functionality. In particular,
due to the fact that we are not limited to one set of data. After
all, you can create as many profiles as you wish, for example –
one serious profile to fill in application questionnaires and one
slangy profile for registering in chat rooms, etc. You can also
select one profile that will be used by default.
In addition,
due to the profile system in iNetFormFiller several users can use
the same application on one computer. In the application every user
can create his own account and protect his profiles with a password.
Although profiles are an extremely convenient tool, there are cases
when one would do best without them. For example, a page may repeatedly
require certain data that are not included into the profile. Do
you need to create a separate profile for such cases? Certainly
not! iNetFormFiller is capable of remembering all the fields on
any page. All you need to do is provide all the necessary data on
the required page, and once you’ve finished, click the “Save
Form” button. All done! The next time you load this page you
will see a window in which you’ll need to click either “Fill”
(to fill the form) or “Fill&Submit” (to fill and
confirm). By the way, the same window will pop up every time you
load a page with fields to fill in. In the window you can select
a profile other than default to fill in the form. In contrast to
many similar applications, iNetFormFiller always accurately processes
pages of any complexity,
including those that consist of several frames.
So, all the pages that have been saved this way will be displayed
in the left hand panel of iNetFormFiller, in the “Formcards
List”. When you click on the page name, all the fields of
this page (sort of its image called a ‘formcard’) will
be displayed on the right. You can edit the form-card offline by
entering new values.
For pages consisting of several frames it is sometimes not quite
clear in which of them you need to click “Submit”. In
such cases when editing you can select the form (Auto Form). The
list of all formcards is grouped by domains in the form of a tree.
In other words, all the pages related to one site will be placed
in one group. When you’ve used iNetFormFiller for a long time,
your “Formcards List” will probably
accumulate a large number of sites, and finding the formcard you
need may become difficult even though they are conveniently displayed
in the form of a tree. To make searching easier, the application
provides various sorting options. This is where you will also find
the button for collapsing the tree (a minor, but nevertheless useful
detail!). It should also be noted that you can create “cards”
not only for Web pages, but for Windows applications as well. That
is, when you open a protected WinRAR archive you will see a window
requesting to enter the password. With
iNetFormFiller you can save this window as a formcard (like a Web
page) and edit it the same way. Thus, once you save such a window
and enter the password for it in the formcard, you will be able
to enter the password with a single mouse click. This is just a
simple example, while there are many applications where this way
you can automate filling in complete forms comprising dozens of
fields. As has been
mentioned above, this feature was implemented in version 2.6 only.
You think every possible thing has already been automated to the
maximum? Wrong! iNetFormFiller’s resources haven’t been
exhausted yet. This application is equipped with a curious “process
automation” option that allows you to save each of your actions
in the browser. A simple thing as that will save you from going
through a whole array of pages just to get to your target, for instance,
a certain category of goods in an online shop. Just save your actions
once, and next time iNetFormFiller
will go all the way for you. Certainly, this is reasonable when
you can’t get a direct link to the end page. In this mode
the application will remember not only the fields you’ve filled
in, but every click on a link or a button. Thus you can record a
whole journey through the Net, and then just reproduce it as many
times as you need, probably changing some parameters every once
in a while. Depending on the
application settings, the reproduction mode can be semi-automatic
or automatic. In the former mode you’ll have to confirm each
action, and in the latter the application will automatically do
everything and present to you the end result. It seems that we have
studied the major features of a standard version of the application.
However, iNetFormFiller Pro has yet another feature that will undoubtedly
interest those who work in the Internet on a professional level.
The
case in point is batch processing that enables the users to enter
information into a certain form over and over again spending minimum
time and efforts on the job. All you need to do is to create a certain
text file with the required data in the format of your choice, load
it into iNetFormFiller and link the Web form fields to the data
in the file. Now just enter the URL of the target page, and iNetFormFiller
will
repeatedly fill in the form every time anew, according to the data
in the file. On
the whole there two modes of batch processing: automatic and step-by-step.
In the former the application will scan the whole text file itself
and fill in the form as many times as there are data you have provided.
The latter mode presupposes that once a form has been completed,
you’ll have to confirm moving over to the next step. As you
see, the features are designed so as to reduce your work to a minimum.
No doubt, batch processing is a real boon if you need to enter all
sorts of information in certain forms over and over again.
In addition
to all the features mentioned above, the flexibility of settings
in this application deserves a special note. It is very convenient
that you can configure custom settings for each page, including
various filling and saving options.
Besides, it is worth mentioning that the application is equipped
with the ability to export/import profiles and formcards enabling
the user to select what needs to be exported or imported. This makes
the process of transferring to another computer or another operational
system as easy as it can be. In addition, with iNetFormFiller you
can create backup copies of the whole database to restore your information
in
the long run (things do happen, but why enter all the information
again by hand?). It is good news that the application is provided
with active technical support that tries to give its fullest attention
to every user of iNetFormFiller running into problems when automatically
filling in a certain Web page. iNetFormFiller makes contact with
technical support as effortless as it can be: just click the right
button, and the “problem” Web form will be sent directly
to developers. They will find out what has caused the problem, solve
it and upload the next update on the official site. In version 2.6
the process of updating the application is as automated and simplified
as possible. You no longer need to download a new version every
time it is released - iNetFormFiller will identify the update on
its own and
download the missing files only. Certainly, iNetFormFiller has a
whole array of other features, but we are not going to consider
them now, as the rest is quite easy to figure out. What is left
to us is
a summary.
Having studied the numerous features that applications of such kind
present, I’m beginning to understand how deeply mistaken I
was thinking that the speed and comfort of work depend on technical
means only. As I have already mentioned above,
at present iNetFormFiller is the application offering the most powerful
toolset to automate and speed up working in the Internet. And since
the application is
regularly updated, it is obvious that its developers believe there
is always room for growth.
When considering
the cost of iNetFormFiller, one should remember the ultimate purposes
that it serves, particularly the following:
- saving the precious time; - saving money (!);
- saving your health that, as we all know, you can never buy; -
comfortable work. In my opinion, the application easily makes up
for the $15 (for the standard version, or $50 for the Pro version)
that its developers are asking for their efforts. After all, if
you think about it, what computer part can you buy for this much
to make your pastime in the Internet as comfortable and efficient
as iNetFormFiller does?
You can download
the latest version of iNetFormFiller from: http://www.inetformfiller.com/
2025
