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Programs for Filling In Web Forms?

Posted by Cliff on from the for-those-who-find-typing-painful dept.

cafebabe asks: "My mother has severe arthritis and must do a lot of her shopping online since it is painful for her to walk. Since she also has trouble typing, she needs a program to help her fill out all of the data entry fields on web sites. When I was home over Thanksgiving, I saw that my mother had Gator on her computer. I uninstalled it, explained spyware to her, and installed RoboForm, which I had heard good things about. RoboForm ended up causing her computer to crash so my father uninstalled it. Is RoboForm really the best thing out there or do any of you know of something better?"

22 comments

  1. Uhhh... by Nef · · Score: 2, Redundant

    It's called Mozilla! (Or Phoenix, whichever fits your predilections best!)

    1. Re:Uhhh... by Izanagi · · Score: 1

      HERE! HERE!

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  2. Something better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    would be if the online grocers would print a catalog full of numbered items and let Grandma shop by touch-tone instead of making her surf the Net.

    1. Re:Something better by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      because someone with trouble typing can so easily dial all the numbers into a phone?

      I don't think that would solve much.

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  3. ummm...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Both Internet Explorer and Mozilla have automagic form completetion. IE has it on by default, Moz the opposite. I would not be surprised if Netscape has it too.

    Also, ensure you actually removed all of Gator's excess baggage. Spyware tends to have ways of having the sinister stuff stick around after being uninstalled.

    1. Re:ummm...... by King+of+the+World · · Score: 2, Informative
      Opera has the best system I have seen. In the preferences you can set a series of strings (name, email address, postal address, cc#) and then right click any form field and select the value to have it printed in.

      The main problem for these is poorly designed forms that, for example, have the phone number as two input boxes (international + local number). Designing forms in such a way makes it difficult to paste preset variables.

      --
      --Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
    2. Re:ummm...... by GigsVT · · Score: 2, Informative

      You forgot the obligitory link to Adaware for all 10 people who do not know about it yet. :)

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      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    3. Re:ummm...... by PianoComp81 · · Score: 1

      Netscape has the same password management system that Mozilla does. The thing I like about it is that I set a master password to unlock the password database. It can ask the user for the master password before each use, once per session, or every X minutes a password hasn't been used. I like this last option, as I keep mozilla open most of the time, but don't always want to enter the master password. (oh, and it tells you how "strong" your master password is)

    4. Re:ummm...... by zcat_NZ · · Score: 2, Interesting

      More to the point; Adaware lists some good non-spyware and free (both types) alternatives for the more common spyware vector programs. A very handy little list. You can find the link up there ^^ somewhere :)

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      455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
  4. voice recognition by farnsworth · · Score: 4, Insightful
    it sounds like you want to think about voice recognition software.

    I've heard good things about IBM's offerings, and I think that they've teamed up with Opera, although that may be only for PDAs and mobile phones.

    --

    There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.

    1. Re:voice recognition by m_evanchik · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd second the voice recognition software.

      I imagine also, that a quick websearch might lead you to handicapped access software and hardware thatcould be useful to your grandmother. After all, she needs to type for more than just forms and this would help her out if she wants to write email or write anything else for that matter.

      I'd also take a serious look at the type of mouse/or trackball she is using. These devices usually force the hand into an artificially cramped position that is painful for arthritis sufferers.

      We'll all grow old eventually and helping the elderly deall with problems like this now means that better solutions will exist when we face these problems.

      If you find anything interesting in your research, please share it, via Slashdot or your own website.

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      evanchik.net

  5. Mozilla by davincile0 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mozilla has a form manager which remembers data that you've entered in forms previously and fills in predicted data for forms you've never filled before. It does that by remembering the personal data you fill in the form manager (e.g. "last name", "phone", etc.) and looking at field names in new forms. It also supports optionally encrypting the saved data, and/or autofilling forms (or only filling them when you select "fill in this form" from a menu). It's a good way to go.

    IE has some form data-remembering feature as well, but I don't trust MS with the data much further than I do gator.

  6. Mozilla has it by DeadMeat+(TM) · · Score: 5, Informative
    Mozilla/Netscape 7 has form management features built-in, but most people don't know about it because it's stupidly buried under the Tools menu.

    If the prospect of using a program called Mozilla terrifies her and you don't want all the extra crap that comes standard with Netscape, use SillyDog's steamlined Netscape. Then add the mother-friendly pop-up blocking feature back and she should be good to go.

    1. Re:Mozilla has it by rehannan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Mozilla/Netscape 7 has form management features built-in, but most people don't know about it because it's stupidly buried under the Tools menu.

      It's under "Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Forms" as well as the "Tools -> Form Manager" menu in Mozilla 1.2.1 on both Win2k and OS X.

  7. Mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    Give Mozilla's Form Manager a try.

    If you don't want to give up the look of IE, try the IE skin.

  8. Open Passport? by jkujawa · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've thought about this. I think the ideal solution would be a coupling of something like Microsoft's Passport, except the server which your data would be aggregated on would be your own machine, with a set of standardized extensions to html that allow you to attach true metadata to form entries -- something like , , etc.

  9. Roll your own by aminorex · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just write a little .vbs script for each of her frequently
    used forms and put an icon on the desktop for it.
    Here'' You can download WSH 5.6 from
    ' - http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/vbscript/scrip ting56.asp
    Option Explicit 'Set an automatic error for all undefined variables

    Const promptTitle = "Enter Private Key Password"
    Const ShowSigningStatus = True

    Dim Wshshell, fso, oExec, shell, counter, tmp, signResult, exeError, objArgs
    Dim strPassword: strPassword = ""

    'Create an object array of the command line arguments
    Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments

    if NOT Wshshell.AppActivate(promptTitle) Then
    MsgBox "No such window, "+promptTitle
    WScript.Quit
    End If

    Wshshell.AppActivate(promptTitle)
    Wshshell.Send Keys(strPassword) ' Send the password to the Dialogbox
    WScript.Sleep 200
    Wshshell.SendKeys("{ENTER}") ' Send an enter key to the Dialogbox.

    WScript.Quit

    s a kernel to get you started:

    --
    -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
    1. Re:Roll your own by aminorex · · Score: 2

      I repent in sackcloth and ashes for not previewing that
      before I posted. However, I'm too lazy to dig it up
      again and repost:P

      --
      -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
  10. hmmmm by jon787 · · Score: 1

    try gator

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    X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
  11. does she have a phone by paradesign · · Score: 3, Interesting
    can she dial a phone, cause last i checked QVC and the HSN are still on 24hrs a day. And my tv has never crashed on me. Catalogues are great too, most of theem have 800 numbers so you dont even have to fill in forms. Good online stores will also have a phone number.

    and im not trying to be a dick, but remember, computers are not the answer to everyones problem, nor are they usable by all. But luckily alternatives exist.

    --
    I want 2D games back.
  12. Opera! by Viqsi · · Score: 1

    Opera has had a quick form fill-in capability since something like verison 3. There's a spot in its Preferences where you fill in personal information and other bits; once that's done, you just go to the form in question, right-click on it, and select that data from the menu.

    --

    --
    viqsi - See "vixen"
    If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are headed.
  13. Discover Deskshop by dizgusted · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If she uses a discover card they have a program called deskshop that fills out forms and generates single use card numbers to improve security. Works pretty well in my experience.

    More details: http://www2.discovercard.com/shopcenter/deskshop/m ain.shtml