Items, Logins and Notes¶
Everything you keep in Private Passwords is an item: a login for a website, a bank card, a private note, the password of your Wi-Fi, the details of a person. Every item is made from an item template, which gives it its fields, and every item has a Type, which is the pill it is listed under.
What an item holds¶
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Name | What the item is called in every list, up to 100 characters. You can't give an item a name another item already has, whatever the capital letters. |
| Notes | Anything else worth keeping with it, up to 2,000 characters. They show under the item's name. |
| Website | The site the item belongs to, where its template gives it one. A note or an identity usually has none. |
| Fields | Everything else: a username, a password, a card number, an expiry date, in the order the template set out. |
| Icon | A symbol, a picture, or the website's own icon (Site). With none, the icon of its Type stands in. |
| Tags | As many labels as you like, such as Work or Family. See Tags on the iPhone or the Mac. |
| Identity | The person or organisation the item belongs to, if any. See Identities. |
| Previous Passwords | The two passwords before the present one. They are kept, and cannot be removed. |
Two more things belong to every item: its Type, which it takes from its template, and the template it was made from, which its editor names at the top, as Made from “Login Credentials”.
[Screenshot: an item's editor, Values side, with Name, Notes, Website and the fields of Login Credentials]
Logins¶
A login is an item that signs you in somewhere: a username, a password and the website they belong to. Its template has Contains Login Credentials switched on, and the template's row in the list of templates carries a small Login mark.
New Login starts a login straight away, on your Default Type and its template, with a password already made for it. A login can also name Other Websites where it is used, and Credential Health, while it is on, checks its password.
Tap + and choose New Login. AutoFill offers your logins in Safari and in apps: see AutoFill in Safari and Apps.
Choose New Login from the menu. To fill a login into a page, see Dropping a Page on the Key and Dragging a Value into a Form.
Notes, cards and everything else¶
For anything that isn't a login, start a New Item and choose the template it is made from.
Tap + and choose New Item.
Click +, or choose New Item from the menu.
Up to three favourite templates stand at the top of the list; the rest follow by name. Item Templates explains the stars.
The built-in templates¶
Private Passwords comes with seventeen item templates. Each is listed under one of the eight built-in Types.
| Template | Type | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Login Credentials | Logins | Username, Password, two secret questions with their answers, Recovery Codes, and a Usage note |
| One-Time Code | Codes | A one-time code and nothing else. See One-Time Codes. |
| Secure Note | Notes | Two long fields of text, Note and More |
| Card | Finance | Store / Card type, Name on card, Card number, Expiry, the card's security code, PIN and billing postcode |
| Bank Account | Finance | Account name, the branch code, Account number, BIC / SWIFT, Bank, and a Usage note |
| Personal Identity | Identity | A New Password to use when signing up somewhere, a person's names and date of birth, emails, phones, address, identity numbers, and their work |
| Work Identity | Identity | A person at work: employer, names, Preferred Username, New Password, emails, phones, position, work address and identifiers |
| Membership | Other | Membership Number, Member Name, Password, a one-time code, dates and details |
| Wifi | Infrastructure | Location, SSID, Password, and 2.4 / 5 GHz |
| Wifi Router Admin | Infrastructure | Location, IP Address, Admin Username, Admin Password and Instructions |
| Private Key | Codes | Any sort of key, an SSH key among them: its type, the key itself, where it is used and kept |
| Database | Infrastructure | Database Name, Connection String, a username and password, Server, Port, SID, Alias and Instructions |
| _Create your own | Other | A Username and a line under it, ready for fields of your own. The underscore lists it first. |
| License | Identity | Who supplied it, its numbers, the name on it, its dates and information |
| Software License | Software | Username, Password, License Key, License Type, its dates, and where to download, update and get support |
| Warranty | Identity | Where the device is, when and where it was bought, its model and serial numbers, when the warranty ends, and its value |
| Server | Infrastructure | Host Name, IP Address, Root User and its password, and where the server is and who looks after it |
A few labels follow the country chosen when the app was first set up. A Bank Account's branch code, for example, is BSB in Australia, Sort code in Britain and Routing number in the United States.
Field types¶
Each field has a label, such as Username, and a type, which decides how it behaves.
| Field type | How it behaves |
|---|---|
| Text | Shown as it is typed. |
| Hidden | Masked until it is revealed. Good for a PIN, a secret answer or a card number. |
| Password | Masked, and rated for strength. An item has one at most: make any others Hidden. |
| Web address | A web address. It opens the site. |
| Date | A day, a month and a year, typed and shown in the date format Settings has. |
| Multi-line | Several lines. Never part of AutoFill, and never shown in lists. |
| One-time code | The place of the item's one-time code. Add TOTP puts it in, one at most. |
| Instruction | Not a field: words written on the template, shown on the item as they are written. Nothing is typed into it. |
| Section Separator | Not a field: a line across the item, with a heading under it, or the line alone. |
Instructions and section separators are made on a template; an item shows them but cannot change them. A field may also have a hint, grey words that stand in it while it is empty, such as e.g. Name of your 2nd pet - Lassie.
An item's own fields¶
An item keeps its own copy of the fields it was made with. The editor has two sides: Values, where you fill them in, and Fields, where you change the fields themselves.
On the Fields side you can:
- Add Field: give it a label and choose its type.
- Add TOTP: add the place for a one-time code.
- Move a field by dragging its handle, or remove it.
- Turn the Website off or on for this item.
- Give a field its place in AutoFill, a number from 1 to 999. Empty leaves it out.
AutoFill is the order the fields are offered in, smallest first.
Autofill is the order Drag to Autofill offers the fields in, smallest first. The first is shaded on the item's panel, and is what the drag leaves in the page's field.
Changing the fields changes this item alone, never its template or any other item. The name, the notes and the website are not fields: they always stand at the head of the item.
[Screenshot: an item's editor, Fields side, with Add Field and Add TOTP]
The field shown in lists¶
Beside an item's name in the lists, one of its fields can be shown, so you can tell items apart at a glance: a login's username, say, or a card's type. Only a Text or Web address field can be shown, so what is listed is never a hidden value. The template chooses one to start with, and each item can choose another, or Nothing.
On the Fields side, choose it under Shown in lists.
On the Fields side, choose it under Shown beside the name in lists.
Continue to Types and the Default Type.