1Password 3 to 4 interface changes
Howdy,
I've been a loyal 1Password user for quite awhile. I use it both at home on my Windows gaming PC, on my personal Mac laptop, and on my work Mac laptop. With the recent upgrade to version 4 on the Mac, obviously the interface changed. There are a few quirks of the new interface though that specifically interfere in my workflow. Primarily this affects me at work, which is why I'm writing about it.
On multiple monitors when using my browser on my secondary display, 1Password in Firefox will attempt to load pop-out dialogs into an area which is off the display, but they don't span across, effectively cutting them off.
The new generate password function doesn't allow me to forcefully cause a new password generation. Only by changing the parameters used to generate the password can I make the generated password change. This isn't strictly a deal breaker, but I find it very annoying as I like to click generate a few times before keeping the password. Mathematically it shouldn't make any difference assuming your PRNG implementation is reasonably good, but it's a personal quirk. It's also not possible to copy the password by double-clicking the password box after generating a password, and the default action on the button on the side is to "fill" which I pretty much never use, so I have to go through the drop-down each time to copy. Highly annoying.
I have a significant number of logins saved which share subdomains, which means that they all come up in a list when I go to anything on that domain. This is true in both 3 and 4. However, as it happens, the logins I access most often are at the bottom of the list, and in version 4 I have to use an extra mouse-click to access them. I find this a bit annoying, although not critical.
Kind of as a followup to #3 and #1 on my list. Because you guys aren't using pop-outs that "persist" like you did in Version 3, it makes it extremely difficult to rapidly get access to the ability to copy a password to my buffer or to force it to fill without going to the domain tied to the login (many logins cross domains due to identity federation services). This can have as little as no impact to as much as 30-45 seconds of impact on my workflow each time I encounter difficulty with it. While that may not seem like much, it breaks my cadence and can be quite frustrating. I'm often in situations where I must work quickly while accessing many disparate systems, so this can have a significant impact under some circumstances.
Clicking "Edit" on a login in Version 4 from the browser forces the desktop application to load, forces me to authenticate again (even if I just authenticated), and requires me to use the desktop app interface, which I am much less accustomed to compared to the browser interface where I spend the majority of my time. In version 3, I could edit "inline" through the browser interface without an extraneous authentication or waiting for the desktop application to load. Since I change passwords often (not on the same site, but consistently because of the quantity of logins I track) this becomes very annoying very quickly.
I realize this all seem like relatively petty gripes, but I've already noticed a significant and frustrating impact on my overall workflow since the upgrade. It's all the more jarring because when I go home and use my desktop still on version 3 on Windows, it makes it that much more apparent how much I prefer the Version 3 interface over the Version 4 interface.
So that leads to what I'd like to have changed. If at all possible, the best case scenario would be to allow me to select an option to return to the "classic" Version 3 interface. Disrupting my workflow can have a lot of long-term impact and as much as possible I don't want my workflow to change. Barring that, fixing it so that it works properly with multiple monitors, doesn't assume automatically that I always want to go to the domain tied to a login just because I happened to click near the login, and using "persistent" (for lack of a better term) pop-outs would go a long way to making it less painful.
I can readily recognize the new interface is more visually appealing, but I honestly wish you guys hadn't changed it. The previous interface was a winning deal that worked exceptionally well in my existing workflow without any modification when I adapted your software into it. At the end of the day, I've got a job to do, and your software is only in my toolkit because it helps me achieve my job more effectively. When it stops doing so, I'll find something different that can fill the gap.
Thanks.
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Same here, especially item #5, and when you do click edit it rarely works, just try it.
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Thanks for your comments, Tyler! These things are part of the growing pains of rewriting 1Password 4 from scratch, and then putting into the new code base changes that improve upon workflows such as your own. Some things from 1Password 3 will never reappear but most will come back better than ever.
Included in that is the statement by AgileBits that editing from the browser/1Password mini is highly desired. We'll have to patiently await that and other things. One thing that sounds particular vexing in your specific case (from #5) is that you are being re-prompted to unlock your vault when the main application launches during an Edit operation. That implies to me that the background processes aren't correctly talking to each other, or that you have more than one version of 1Password installed and the wrong one (one that isn't connecting with those background processes) is launching. You may need to followup specifically with AgileBits on that issue if it continues as there may be a simple solution for you until inline editing is available.
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Here's another vote for bringing back the missing features and browser interface of version 3.
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Hi Tyler,
Thanks for providing such detailed feedback! I certainly wouldn't call these petty gripes: we strive to make 1Password as user-friendly as possible, so hearing what you think of a new system is invaluable to us. I'll do my best to respond to each of your points here as best as I can. I would also like to apologize for the delay in responding to you here but we have been a bit overwhelmed since the launch of 1Password 4 for Mac. We're all working hard and putting in extra hours to get back to our usual snappy responses and we really appreciate your patience.
On multiple monitors when using my browser on my secondary display, 1Password in Firefox will attempt to load pop-out dialogs into an area which is off the display, but they don't span across, effectively cutting them off.
This is a known issue. Our developers are working hard to help 1Password Mini behave better on multiple monitors. Believe me, you're not the only one who has noticed this, and we'd love to get it behaving properly just as soon as possible.
The new generate password function doesn't allow me to forcefully cause a new password generation.
This is another item on our 'to be improved' list. I've added a vote for you :)
I have a significant number of logins saved which share subdomains, which means that they all come up in a list when I go to anything on that domain. This is true in both 3 and 4. However, as it happens, the logins I access most often are at the bottom of the list, and in version 4 I have to use an extra mouse-click to access them.
Extra mouse-clicks are never good. We know that searching in 1Password 4 has some room for improvement, but if the logins that you access most often are falling to the bottom of the list, I might suggest that you take a look at Favourites. Adding an item to Favourites will keep it at the top of Mini, and much more easily accessible. A bit of a change in your workflow might also help. You don't mention how you are accessing these sites, but using the Mini to visit sites can be very handy. Here's how I do it:
- Use the keyboard shortcut (Cmd-Ctrl-) to access the Mini
- Start typing the title of the site I want
- Hit enter once it is highlighted (if it's a site like Google that I have multiple Logins for, I use the arrow keys to scroll to the one I want)
This opens a new tab with the website and automatically logs me in. Please let me know if that helps your situation at all.
Because you guys aren't using pop-outs that "persist" like you did in Version 3, it makes it extremely difficult to rapidly get access to the ability to copy a password to my buffer or to force it to fill without going to the domain tied to the login
You're right, this behaviour is slightly different in 1Password 4. There are two things that I can suggest here:
- If you are using the keyboard to navigate in Mini, when the password is highlighted, the Enter key will copy the password to your clipboard, so that you can easily paste it into the field you require.
- The Anchor icon in the item details of mini will anchor the window in place so that it will stay put while you copy and paste.
That being said, this is another area we are looking at improving. 1Password Mini has been dreamed up as an all-purpose mini version for users like yourself who spend most of their time using 1Password directly from the browser. We're still working on ways to make it as simple and efficient (while still having enough features to be really useful.)
Clicking "Edit" on a login in Version 4 from the browser forces the desktop application to load, forces me to authenticate again (even if I just authenticated), and requires me to use the desktop app interface, which I am much less accustomed to compared to the browser interface where I spend the majority of my time.
First of all, you are certainly not the only one who is missing the Edit in the browser/Mini. I'll add your vote to the stack. :) Further, I do agree with @MartyS in that, if you are being asked to authenticate when the Mini is already unlocked, it sounds like you may have multiple copies of 1Password installed here. If you are still experiencing this, please let me know and we can get a Diagnostic Report to take a better look at your system.
Hi Seth,
As above, I would like to apologize for the delay in responding. There is a known issue where clicking 'Edit' while in Mini will take you to the incorrect entry if the main app is closed. Our developers are working on fixing this, but in the meantime, things should work properly for you if the main app is open. If this is not the case, please let me know!
Hi @stormy,
You may have noticed that version 4.1 has brought back some of the classic interface from 1Password 3. I hope you like it, but please let me know if there are other features that you are missing that I haven't covered here - we are always interested in user feedback!
And happy holidays to all :)
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Thanks all for your responses. I was on the road so missed them until now.
I'll try out your suggestions over the next couple of weeks, Megan. Then afterwards, I will report back if that resolves my workflow complaints. Typically though I don't actually search for a site in particular to login to with those that fall to the bottom. I saw you mention favorites, but unfortunately I'm not quite sure how to mark a site as a favorite. In particular, I have lots of web-based applications tied to my work federated identity, which is usually item 9 out of 11 on the list when I click on the 1Password icon in my browser. If I can mark that as a favorite and move it to the top that'd save me thousands of clicks a day.
Thanks again.
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Hi Tyler,
Please do let me know if any of these suggestions work for you. Marking an item as a favourite is happily a simple procedure: just click the star under the title of an entry :) You can do the same via the menu: Item > Favourite.
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