Autofill Your Name and Email in Safari

In addition to IDs and passwords, you can autofill your name and email address into forms with Safari. This is handy for filling out simple forms where you are not logging into a site. You can change which information is available in the Contacts app.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: The typical AutoFill function in Safari will allow you to fill in IDs and passwords to websites when you login to them. For instance, here at Twitter I can click in the login fields here and I can select from multiple logins I've got and log on with that.
But that's only one of many functions. If we go into Safari Preferences and go to AutoFill we can see that you have four different types of AutoFill. The one I want to talk about right now is using info from my Contacts. So how does that work?
Well, that works in a situation where you're not logging into a site but you're still asked to enter something like your email address or your name. Now a really good example is the MacMost website itself. I don't have user accounts in MacMost. Anybody can leave a comment. But when you do leave a comment I ask that you fill in your name and email. This is useful when I want to respond to you directly maybe if your comment is off topic of I feel it's better if I just email you back as a response rather than responding here. 
So I ask you for your name and email. The email is not included on the site and your name is put there with the comment. Now these can be Autofilled as well. The way it works in Safari is really easy. If you click to type into the field here you get this little person icon. You click on it and you get a menu where you can select a name. The same thing here for email. You click and you see you can select an email address.
You can also hit this thing where it says AutoFill. What AutoFill does is it fills in both of these fields. Whereas if I were to select an email address it would fill in this email field but not fill in the name field.
So you have ways to quickly AutoFill your name and your email address without having to type the entire thing from scratch.
Where does it get this information from? Well you may have noticed that under Preferences, AutoFill there is this Edit button. This Edit button will actually open up the Contacts app and take you directly to your card in the Contacts app. If you're using Contacts, or even if you're not, you are going to have a card here that is your card. 
You can alter it if it's in the wrong one. Under Card you can say Make This My Card. You can see this is already My Card here. This is your identification information. So there's my name and there are my email addresses. Now this only works if you have at least one email address filled in. So you can see I've got two email addresses here both using the same name. That's what we saw there. There's home and work. I can add more email addresses. Hit Done here and, of course, if I'm coming into this from Contacts I would see it here and I would hit Edit to actually edit it. But that Edit button actually takes me directly there.
Now when I go and fill out this field here you can see there's that new one. It appears so I can enter that in. You can see I still just have these two here, home and work. If I hit the Customize button here I can actually go and I can see all three of these and select the one I want. There we go.
So you have these options and it's really handy to not to have to type your entire name or type your email address every time you are asked for them on the web even if it's not something where you're logging in.

Comments: 14 Responses to “Autofill Your Name and Email in Safari”

Robert Gregg

8 years ago

Thanks - I have a related problem, in that autofilling of my zip code on a web page gives another zip code that in nearly 100 miles from where I live. Do you have any idea why that would be or how I can fix it?

Gary Rosenzweig

Robert: Is that zip code on your contact in the Contacts app? If not, then this is simply a matter of your location being incorrectly guessed by the web pages. So just enter your correct zip code and move on. Eventually geolocation databases will update and get it right for you.

Nanci

I recall reading somewhere that using autofill could leave your Contacts vulnerable to hacking and were advised not to use it. Is this not true?

Nanci: Where did you read that? Autofill is only as vulnerable as you are -- if a fake website asks you to fill in your information and then steals it, it could happen whether you use Autofill or whether you manually type in that information.

Art Bridges

How do I change the Name that comes up when I click?

Art: That comes from your contact in the Contacts app. Watch the second half of the video.

Jerry W Fitzsimmons

Is to the case that using autofill for just your name and email would allow the requester to collect all your info - phone, address, etc, your whole 'card'?

Jerry: It is no different than if the form was requesting it and you typed it. Autofill is just a way to save time typing. It doesn't hurt or help security.

Norman Runge

When I just typed in my "nrunge" up popped "grunge" and I had to x it out. This is not coming from my Contact card autofill, but from another library for type suggestions. Where do I eliminate this?
Thx, Norm

Norman: That's different than what I am talking about in the video. That's regular typing "autocorrect" as opposed to this special feature of Safari. Just continue to use the X and it should learn. Or you can turn off the whole thing in Edit, Substitutions, Text Replacement, but that will disable the whole feature, not just that one instance.

Ed Mullery

Gary, do you think that the Safari Keychain password system effectively eliminates the need for third-party password managers like LastPass, 1Password, etc.?

Ed: For some users, yes. But if you have even one non-Apple device, it is useful to have a cross-platform solution. I also like to use 1Password to store misc info, like passport numbers, safe combos, and things like that. I just use both. Since you are prompted by both to safe passwords when you sign up for something, it is really no extra effort.

Jim Goddard

Thanks for all the GREAT info!
The videos are extremely helpful.
I have been a MAC user for about 8 years and am still learning how to better use my Macs.
I recommend your site to all my Mac friends.

Tanis Dickson

Thank you for this video. Got it working now. Great time saver!

Comments Closed.

Autofill Your Name and Email in Safari

Comments: 14 Responses to “Autofill Your Name and Email in Safari”

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