How to use Verifill.

01First steps, in pictures

Ten steps, each illustrated by a picture. Follow them in order the first time: in five minutes, you will know how to fill in your forms. The numbers on the pictures match the explanations right below them. Click a picture to enlarge it.

Step 2

Open Verifill on your form

Go to your form's page, then click the V. A window opens, on the “Fill” tab.

1. 1The bell keeps the day's messages: a message gone from the screen can be found there.
2. 2The form Verifill works on.
3. 3Five tabs. To fill in a form, the first one is enough.
4. 4Click here to start.

Step 3

Let Verifill analyse the form

Click “1. Analyze fields”. Verifill reads the page and shows you what it understood. Nothing is written into your form yet.

1. 1How many fields were found on the page.
2. 2Uncheck a field to leave it empty.
3. 3What Verifill will write: here, a first name. Pick another rule in the menu if needed.
4. 4Want one precise value? Type it here: it will be written as is.

Your choices are kept for this screen: next time, there will be nothing to redo.

Step 4

Fill

Scroll to the bottom of the window and click “2. Fill checked fields”.

1. 1The button that fills in the form.
2. 2The summary: how many fields were filled, and how many meet what the site requires.
3. 3“Live tracking”: if new fields appear later, they are filled too.

Step 5

Check the result on the page

Every filled field is outlined in a colour. You can see at a glance what was done.

1. 1Green: the value meets what the site requires.
2. 2Blue: a choice in a list, a button or a checkbox.
3. 3Purple: a value that comes from you, or a copy. Here, the confirmation repeats the email address.

Two other colours can appear:

• Orange: a value suggested by Verifill, worth a quick check.
• Red: a field the site may reject. Examine it before submitting the form.

You stay in control from start to finish: Verifill writes, you review, and you are the one who submits the form.

Step 6

Keep Verifill open: the panel

The window closes as soon as you click in the page. To keep Verifill open while you work, press Ctrl + Shift + V. The panel appears inside the page and stays there.

1. 1Grab this bar to move the panel.
2. 2Analyze the fields, as in the window.
3. 3Fill.
4. 4Open the full tool beside the page, already set on this form.
5. 5The orange dot: no backup is in place yet. One click leads to the full backup.
6. 6Close the panel. Ctrl + Shift + V closes it too.

It is the most comfortable way to fill in a multi-step form: the panel stays on screen from one step to the next.

Step 7

Use your own values

By default, Verifill composes realistic values. To use yours, open the “Values” tab.

1. 1Import an Excel, CSV or JSON file. One row is one test person, one column is one form field.
2. 2Or declare a value once and for all: it will be written wherever that word appears.

Step 8

Replay a fill

Want to run exactly the same test again the next day, or after the site is updated? Everything is in the “History” tab.

1. 1Every fill is kept here, with all its values.
2. 2Click “export”: this fill is saved to a file.

Then, in the “Values” tab, click “Import a file (CSV / Excel / JSON)” and select that file.

1. 1The file becomes a dataset. At the next “Fill”, each field gets exactly the same value back.

With Verifill Enterprise, several fills can be exported together: each one becomes a row, and “Use one row per fill” replays them one after the other.

Step 9

Choose the language

Verifill uses your browser's language. To change it, open the “Settings” tab.

1. 1The orange dot on “Settings”: no backup is in place yet (section 09).
2. 2Language: “Automatic” (your browser's), Français or English.
3. 3Theme: light, dark, or your computer's.

Step 10

For those who write automated tests

“Selectors” tab, “Analyze” button: for each field, a line of code already checked on the page.

1. 1Choose your test's language.
2. 2How robust the line is: robust, ambiguous or fragile.
3. 3Copy the line and paste it into your test.

You don't write tests? You can ignore this tab: everything else works without it.

02Reading the field list

Each line presents three elements, and leaves you in control of all three. Your settings are kept for this screen: next time, there is nothing to redo.

1. 1“Forms only” leaves search bars and filters aside: almost always the right choice. “Whole page” includes everything else.
2. 2The checkbox: uncheck a field to leave it empty, this time and the next ones.
3. 3The rule: what Verifill understood the field to be. Change it in the menu, and your choice becomes the right answer for that field.
4. 4The exact value: whatever you type here is written as is.

1. 1A drop-down: the menu offers the page's real options, plus “Random”.

1. 1A checkbox: “Check”, “Uncheck” or “Random”.

At the bottom, “Reset settings” erases what you set for this screen, and nothing else. A confirmation states exactly what will be removed.

03The panel: Verifill always within reach

The extension window closes as soon as you click in the page: handy for setting up, inconvenient for working. The panel addresses precisely this need.

The panel appears inside the page, top right, and stays there. Grab its title bar to move it if it is in the way, and use “Close” to hide it. You can click anywhere in the form, scroll, or move to the next step: it stays in place.

1. 1Analyze fields, then Fill: as in the window.
2. 2“Only fill empty fields” and “Live tracking”, for multi-step journeys.
3. 3The three value sources, shared with the window.
4. 4Fill in a screen by hand, then click here: Verifill remembers the whole screen for next time.
5. 5The full tool, in a separate window already set on this form: the same one as the icon's.
6. 6Settings: backup, language, memory. The orange dot means no backup is in place yet.

It is most valuable in a multi-step journey: you fill in step 1, click “Next” in the page, step 2 appears, and the panel is still there.

For anyone writing tests, it is the most comfortable way to work: the page stays in front of you, the “Selectors” window beside it. You spot a field in the page, read its verified selector in the window, copy it, then paste it into your test.

The panel and the window share the same settings: what you check in one is reflected in the other.

On Edge, extension shortcuts are not assigned by default. The “Settings” tab shows, under “Appearance”, the shortcut actually assigned, and where to choose one.

04Using your own values

By default, Verifill composes plausible values. That is perfect for a trial, but you often want to use yours: your test address, a case number, an organisation name. This is set in the “Values” tab, once and for all.

1. 1The field's name, to find your way.
2. 2The words that point to it in a label, separated by commas.
3. 3Where the value comes from: a list, a pattern or a numbered sequence.
4. 4Your values, one per line: random or in order.
5. 5Save: the field works on every site.

1. 1The summary: how many values are new, how many are updated.
2. 2This form is learned: its values will come back at the next fill.
3. 3Each learned value can be read, corrected and deleted here, one by one.

05Filling many times, with different data

If you have to create twenty test records, you do not want the same values twenty times. Import a dataset: a CSV, Excel or JSON file where each row is one profile.

The rule is simple: one column per field, one row per profile. The column name should resemble the field's label; Verifill matches them itself, and tells you which columns it recognised.

1. 1Paste a table: the first row holds the column names. A file can be loaded too, with the button at the top of the tab.
2. 2Load it.
3. 3Verifill shows the profiles and columns it read.
4. 4The row used at the next fill: one complete, consistent profile.
5. 5“Use one row per fill”: each fill takes the next row.

You can keep several datasets, one per test case, to switch between them.

The free version uses the first 5 rows of a dataset, and says so on screen. Verifill Enterprise uses them all.

A dataset applies to the fields whose column exists; the others keep being filled by the rules. A partial dataset is therefore enough: the form is still filled in completely.

06Dynamic screens, and multi-step journeys

Many modern applications reveal fields later: one choice uncovers others, a next step appears without the page reloading. Two settings, under the field list, handle these situations.

1. 1“Only fill empty fields”: nothing already entered is overwritten.
2. 2“Live tracking”: fields that appear later are filled in turn.
3. 3How long Verifill watches the page: from one to ten minutes.

1. 1While tracking, an indicator stays at the bottom right of the page.
2. 2One click on “Stop” ends the tracking at once.

Embedded frames are handled like everything else: if the form sits inside a frame, Verifill locates it and writes into it.

The panel (section 03) makes all of this even more comfortable: it stays on screen from one step to the next.

07Selectors, and the test script

This part is for people who write automated tests. Everyone else can move on: the tool is complete without this tab ever being opened.

In the “Selectors” tab, “Analyze” provides, for every field and button, a way to target it in a test: in CSS, in XPath, or in JavaScript. Every selector is replayed on the page before being shown to you: it matches that element, and only that one.

1. 1The scope, as in the Fill tab.
2. 2“Analyze”: every selector is replayed on the page before being shown to you.
3. 3Go through your screen's tabs: each one is analysed on the way and added to the list.
4. 4“My test is in”: Robot Framework, Python with Selenium, or JavaScript.

Next to each selector is a label: robust, ambiguous or fragile. It is not an opinion, but the result of the replay. An id that changes on every page load is recognised as such and replaced by a stable marker: precisely what makes a test fail the following week for no visible reason. On our try-it page, the “Username” field is such a case:

1. 1The robustness, measured by replaying the selector on the page.
2. 2The line ready to paste into your test. Its changing id is set aside: Verifill targets the field by its name.
3. 3The other ways to target this field, with their robustness: pick the one that suits you.

1. 1“Export the script”: a complete, ready-to-paste script for the screen on display.

With Verifill Enterprise, the script covers the whole journey Verifill followed, in the order visited, and selectors can also be exported as JSON.

The most comfortable method: open the panel with Ctrl + Shift + V, then its “Selectors” button. The list opens in a separate window, the page stays in front of you, and you copy on one side what you paste on the other.

08Finding what was filled

The “History” tab keeps every fill: the date, the screen, the value written into each field, and where it came from. It is the tab to open when someone asks which data you tested with.

1. 1Filter by date.
2. 2Or jump straight to a day.
3. 3The export format: CSV, Excel or JSON.
4. 4Every fill, with the value written into each field and where it came from.
5. 5“export”: this fill goes into a file, ready to be replayed from “Values” (section 05).

Verifill Enterprise also exports the whole history, or everything the filter shows, and replays several fills at once.

1. 1“Cleanup & space used”: the space used on this computer, and what uses it.
2. 2Delete everything before a date.
3. 3Or clear the whole history, after confirmation.

09Back up, and change computer without losing anything

Everything Verifill remembers lives in your browser: your per-form settings, your values, your datasets, the selector memory and the history. That means two things: nobody else sees it, and nobody else backs it up. A few minutes, just once, are enough to protect yourself.

1. 1The orange dot: no backup is in place on this computer yet.
2. 2The three setup steps: the next one is always shown.
3. 3“Choose the folder…”: the only action to take, just once.

1. 1What the folder already contains, and the date of that backup. Nothing has been written to it.
2. 2“Load this backup”: on a new computer, everything comes back.
3. 3“Replace with this computer”: the old backup stays in the folder, under a dated name.
4. 4“Cancel”: the folder is not kept.

When the browser asks again for permission to write to the folder, click “Restore access” and choose “Allow on every visit”: it will not be asked again. Nothing is lost in the meantime: everything stays in the extension and is caught up when it resumes.

1. 1“Back up to a file”: everything, in a single file.
2. 2“Restore…”: one file, or several at once (select them all with Ctrl + A).

1. 1Find an address by typing part of its name.
2. 2Each address, with what it keeps: selectors, learned values, screen settings.
3. 3“forget” erases a single part, after confirmation.
4. 4“forget all” erases everything the address keeps.

10The most frequent questions

A field stayed empty: why?

Three points to check, in this order. Was it checked in the list? Is it outside the form, like a search bar (switch the scope to “Whole page”)? Does it appear only after a choice (tick “Live tracking”)? In all three cases, one setting is enough, and it is kept afterwards.

I want a different value in this field

Two options, your choice. Change the field's rule in its menu if the type is wrong; type the exact value on its line if it is one precise piece of data. Both are kept for this screen, and next time there is nothing left to do.

I want to run exactly the same test again

Export the fill from the “History” tab, then import that file in “Values”: at the next fill, each field gets the same value back. That is step 8 of the first steps.

The site expects a value that already exists in its records

That is the case of a number that must match an existing record. Enter it as an exact value, or load a dataset with the matching column: Verifill will use your rows one by one.

Nothing happens when I click the icon

Browsers reserve their own pages (those starting with chrome:// or edge://, the extensions page, the store) and allow no extension there. Open your form in an ordinary tab, and everything works again.

I changed computer

Section 09 is designed for this: on the new computer, choose the same backup folder, then “Load this backup”. Everything is restored.

A message disappeared before I could read it

Success messages clear themselves after a few seconds, so as not to clutter the screen. They stay in the bell, at the top of the window: the day's list, most recent first, emptied every day. Errors stay on screen.

1. 1The bell: its number counts the messages not read yet.
2. 2The day's messages, with their time.

How do I report a problem to you?

In “Settings”, “Diagnostics” section, the “Copy the report” button puts on your clipboard everything we need to reproduce the situation: version, browser, settings, and your last few fills. Paste it into an email.

1. 1“Copy the report”: the report goes to your clipboard, nothing is sent.
2. 2What the report contains, spelled out: read it before sending.

11The practices that save the most time

Six habits that, once adopted, change how you use the tool.

• Pin the icon on day one, and remember Ctrl + Shift + V. These are the two actions you will perform most often.
• Set up each screen once, carefully. The minutes spent correcting a rule on the first visit come back to you on every later visit.
• Declare your recurring values in “Custom fields”: they will serve on every site, not just today's.
• Tick “Live tracking” as soon as a journey has several steps. It is the most valuable setting in the tool.
• Point at a backup folder as soon as you start using the tool regularly, not on the day you change computer.
• Export the fill that works: imported back later, it replays the same test identically.

And if a form gives you difficulties, report it to us: it joins our test collection, and the engine improves for everyone.