Do you hate trying to come up with secure passwords? Do you hate trying to remember them?
If you’re concerned about your online security, then a password manager is a tool you should consider.
There are a lot of password management choices, but not many of them come with the feature set of Dashlane.
Dashlane is a beautifully designed and very helpful password manager that is available on multiple devices. It’s available for Windows desktop, Mac OS X, Android and iOS devices.
Today we’re going to review the OS X version of Dashlane.
Setting up Dashlane
Download the dmg file, mount it, and then drag it to your applications folder.
Run the application and you’ll be asked to register your email address and choose a unique master password. Choose a strong password as this will be used to access Dashlane.
Click “Confirm Password” and on the next screen, you will need to confirm your password and create your account.
Once your account has been created run the application and you’ll be presented with a Welcome screen. Click “Next” to read about the features. Dashlane will ask if you want to download and install extensions for your browsers.
Select your browsers and click “Next” to download and install them.
When the extension has been installed it will open your browser and ask you click the “Get Started” button to set up the extension.
This is the form autofill settings. Fill out the form with your information and click the large orange button.
Dashlane will then show you how easy it is to fill in forms. Once Autofill has been set up go to the desktop application.
Manage your passwords
To start adding passwords to Dashlane click on the “Passwords” button, and click “Add new.”
Type in the URL, your username, and password. You can also assign it to a category. Click “OK.”
From the next screen, you can give your new account a name to identify it in Dashlane, and add some notes. Once created you can view your passwords in a list or grid view.
From this view, you can click on the icons next to perform different actions. Click on the first arrow icon to email your login details. Click the second arrow icon to automatically open and log into the service. And the third icon which looks like a cog will let you change the account settings.
Personal information
The next area to set up in Dashlane is your personal information. Click on the “Contact” button under “Personal Info.” From here you can set up identities, phone numbers, addresses, and websites. All of this information is used for filling in forms and saving you from having to type it out each time.
Under “Personal Info” you can click on “IDs” to add your identification details. This includes a passport, driver’s license, social security, and other IDs. Just click the “Add new” button and fill out your information.
Digital Wallet
If you want to securely store your payment information click on the “Payments” button under “Wallet.” From here click “Add new.” You can add credit and debit cards, PayPal information, and bank accounts. This will save you a lot of time filling out payment information.
Under “Receipts” you can store a digital copy of all your receipts. It’s useful if you need to refer back to them later. Click the “Add new” button and fill in the information.
Extras
From the Security Dashboard, you can see a percentage rating of your security score with tips on how to increase the rating. You can also choose to activate “Google Authenticator” to make Dashlane even more secure. Although this means you will need to be online to use Dashlane.
At the bottom of the Security Dashboard screen, you can view a “Detailed Password Analysis.” This shows you some stats on how secure your passwords are.
The extension
The extension sits quietly in your menu bar waiting for you to log into a website. Click the extension and select a website, you will be automatically logged into that service.
The extension also features a password generator, the ability to disable autofill for the current website, plus a button to open the desktop app.
Final thoughts
Dashlane is a great password manager that is fast, easy to use, beautifully designed and extremely secure.
It doesn’t slow you down when you want to log into different websites. And by using the browser extension it will speed up this process even more.
Dashlane is free to use on as many devices as you like. If you want to sync your devices and store your security details in the cloud you need to pay $19.99 per year.
