Ready for Lion, but missing some features

Agile Bits, makes of the popular 1Password utility, had already brought Lion support and Safari 5.1 support to its product before either was actually released, but updated its blog post on the topic to keep readers informed on issues that have come up with the inevitable changes. The Safari plug-in for 1Password was completely re-designed for Safari v5.1 as a "proper" extension, and as a result is still missing a few features from the previous version.

Primary among these is the lack of the single-keystroke login feature that was a key selling point for the product. The company says it will be restored in Safari at some point, but can't say exactly when (the Chrome version of the new plug-in does have this functionality). For the time being, users will have to actually select which login they want to use, even if they only have one saved login for the given site.

The developers also recommend turning off Safari's own "AutoFill" ability to save usernames and passwords (in preferences) if one is using 1Password for this function. This prevents the issue of being prompted to save login information twice, improves login-information security.

The company says it is "still working" on a method that will allow the two systems to co-exist more harmoniously. The restoration of a right-click "contextual" menu in the new extension and auto-unlock (to prevent users from having to re-enter their 1Password master password each time they invoke the program) is also said to be in development.

Initial Lion support was added to 1Password with v3.6 in late June, with version 3.6.1 adding the Safari extension. The new design creates a pop-up window (seen below) showing users more of their 1Password database and allowing for quick searching if needed.

The company acknowledges some teething issues: https authentication prompts (shown as a drop-down window on some sites in Safari) are not yet supported in Safari 5.1, and some banking sites (such as chase.com) are not "playing well" with the auto-submit. Future updates (which will now be installed "silently" through the extension auto-update feature (for example, at this writing the extension is already up to v3.6.5-beta23), so users will only become aware of the various "fixes" in the new extension as they use it.

Agile Bits has compiled a troubleshooting page that outlines current known issues with Safari v5.1 and updates on resolutions. The company says a major extension update (which will improve performance speeds and other issues) is coming very soon.

by MacNN Staff