MasterPassword/how.html

---
nav: How
title: How do I use it?

order: 3
layout: default
---

<section id="how">
    <h1>{{ page.title }}</h1>

    <h2><img src="{% link img/password_offer_944292.svg %}" title="https://thenounproject.com/term/key-delivery/944292/" />
        One, two, enter.</h2>

    <p>Good security depends on ease of use.</p>
    <p>With Master Password, logging into any website involves these steps:</p>
    <ol>
        <li>Unlock the Master Password app.</li>
        <li>Find your site and copy its key.</li>
        <li>Enter the site by pasting the key into its password field.</li>
    </ol>
    <hr>
    <p>Most browsers will then ask you to "save" the site's password. If you're comfortable with that, it's a good way of skipping the above steps and logging in even faster next time.</p>

    <h2><img src="{% link img/getting_started_162761.svg %}" title="https://thenounproject.com/term/rocket/162761/" />
        Getting started.</h2>

    <p>As explained, Master Password is not a password manager or a vault.  It is not made to hold your existing site passwords &mdash; that would violate the principles it stands for and break the advantages it offers over ordinary password managers.</p>
    <p>As a result, the largest curve to adopting Master Password involves changing the passwords of all your existing accounts into the cryptographically secure keys generated by Master Password.</p>
    <hr>
    
    <h3>I want pictures.</h3>

    <p>All right. Here's Robert on his iPhone:</p>

    <img src="{% link img/howto-twitter-signup.png %}" srcset="{% link img/howto-twitter-signup@2x.png %} 2x" />

    <p>He wants to sign up for <q>Twitter</q>. Robert filled in all the fields, except for password. Not wanting to worry about what his <q>Twitter</q> secret is going to be, he switches to Master Password.</p>

    <img src="{% link img/howto-mp-login.png %}" srcset="{% link img/howto-mp-login@2x.png %} 2x" />

    <p>Of course, he begins by unlocking his user with his master password.<br>
    Robert can skip this step by going into Master Password's preferences and setting it to either save his master key or remember his login, but he choses not to.</p>

    <img src="{% link img/howto-mp-create.png %}" srcset="{% link img/howto-mp-create@2x.png %} 2x" />
    <img src="{% link img/howto-mp-create-confirm.png %}" srcset="{% link img/howto-mp-create-confirm@2x.png %} 2x" />

    <p>He creates a password for <q>Twitter</q> by using its bare domain name: <code>twitter.com</code>.<br>
    He knows <em>not</em> to use <code>mobile.twitter.com</code> or <code>Twitter</code> or anything non-standard, because that would be very difficult to remember correctly on a later date. If he has multiple twitter accounts, he could prefix the name with a user name and an <code>@</code>: <code>rmitchell@twitter.com</code>, <code>superbob@twitter.com</code>.</p>

    <img src="{% link img/howto-mp-type-change.png %}" srcset="{% link img/howto-mp-type-change@2x.png %} 2x" />
    <img src="{% link img/howto-mp-type-basic.png %}" srcset="{% link img/howto-mp-type-basic@2x.png %} 2x" />

    <p>If the website Robert's signing up for prohibits symbols for some daft reason, Robert can change the type to <em>Basic</em> or something similar instead. Robert can also bump up the complexity to get an even more secure password if he wants.</p>

    <img src="{% link img/howto-twitter-paste.png %}" srcset="{% link img/howto-twitter-paste@2x.png %} 2x" />
    <img src="{% link img/howto-twitter-done.png %}" srcset="{% link img/howto-twitter-done@2x.png %} 2x" />

    <p>With the site added to Master Password, a password was created for it and copied to his pasteboard.<br>
    Now, Robert just switches back to Safari and pastes his brand-new password he doesn't care to remember in <q>Twitter</q>'s password field. All done!</p>

    <h2><img src="{% link img/thumb-iphone-types.png %}"></h2>
</section>