Form Bookmarklets

Form Bookmarklets

These bookmarklets let you interact with forms on web pages more efficiently.

(To keep bookmarklets in order to use them on other web pages, drag them to your Bookmarks Toolbar. Or, install them all at once.)

Bookmarklet	Description	Works in
frmget	Makes "Post" forms submit to bookmarkable URLs (with ?var=value). Details
toggle checkboxes	Toggles the state of each checkbox on the page. Details
next option	Selects the next option in each group of option buttons. Details
allow no option	Click on a selected option button to clear the selection. Details
remove maxlength	Removes maxLength restrictions from textboxes. Details
enlarge textareas	Makes textareas 5 lines taller. Details
show hiddens	Shows hidden form elements. Details
undisable	Enables all form elements. Details
character count	Displays a running count of the characters in each textbox. Details
view passwords	Shows the contents of password fields. Details
remember password	Makes the browser ignore web site requests to not remember passwords. Details
htmlarea ie	Lets you edit textareas expecting HTML code as wysiwyg. (IE) Details
htmlarea moz	Lets you edit textareas expecting HTML code as wysiwyg. (Mozilla) Details

Browsers: is Internet Explorer for Windows, is Netscape 7 or Mozilla, is Netscape 4, and is Opera.

Details

frmget (, , , )

Makes "Post" forms submit to bookmarkable URLs (with ?var=value).

Turns all Post forms on a page into Get forms, allowing you to bookmark a search-results page. Try it on Merriam-Webster or everything2!

Background: There are two types of forms on the Web, Get forms and Post forms. Most search forms are Get forms, which include form data as part of the URL in a format like ?var=value. Forms that have a permanent effect, such as sending e-mail, are always Post forms. Some sites use Post forms for searches when the URL is ugly or long, which makes it difficult to bookmark the results of the search, but most of these sites also accept the same form submitted using the Get method.

Passwords: You can use this bookmarklet to store URLs with passwords as bookmarks, but if you do, you should be aware of several security issues:

Your password will be visible to anyone who shares your bookmarks.
Your password will be visible to anyone looking over your shoulder.
Your password will be visible to the owner of a site linked to by the page whose URL contains the password. Using a bookmark with a password to your webmail inbox is fairly safe, but I wouldn't recommend keeping a bookmark with a password to a site that has many external links on its front page (e.g., Slashdot). Thanks to Johannes la Poutre for pointing this out.

toggle checkboxes (, , , )

Toggles the state of each checkbox on the page.

next option (, , , )

Selects the next option in each group of option buttons.

In each group of option buttons, selects the option after the previously selected one. If no option was previously selected, selects the first.

Based on a suggestion by Tim Berry (Inktomi).

allow no option (, , , )

Click on a selected option button to clear the selection.

Allows you to unselect an option button without selecting another option.

remove maxlength (, , )

Removes maxLength restrictions from textboxes.

Submitted by David Grossberg.

enlarge textareas (, , )

Makes textareas 5 lines taller.

Suggested by Steven Augart.

show hiddens (, , )

Shows hidden form elements.

Shows hidden form elements as textboxes and lets you edit them.

Suggested by "shad".

undisable (, , )

Enables all form elements.

Lets you edit license agreements and other disabled form elements.

Submitted by David Grossberg.

character count (, , )

Displays a running count of the characters in each textbox.

Clicking again makes the counts go away.

view passwords (, , , )

Shows the contents of password fields.

May be useful if you want to switch browsers, upgrade to a new computer, or dump Gator.

remember password ()

Makes the browser ignore web site requests to not remember passwords.

Some sites, including many banks and a few other sites such as Yahoo Mail and Microsoft Passport, tell browsers not to remember passwords for visitors using autocomplete="off". This bookmarklet makes the browser ignore autocomplete="off" temporarily, allowing you to save passwords even on sites that use autocomplete="off".

Use this bookmarklet just before submitting the form with your password in it. When you submit the form, your browser should offer to remember the password (as if the site didn't use autocomplete="off"); click "Yes". Once your browser has your password stored, it will ignore autocomplete="off", so you won't have to use the bookmarklet each time you visit the site.

Thanks to Erich Iseli for making the bookmarklet work on the Passport site.

This bookmarklet only works on sites that use autocomplete="off" to prevent your browser from remembering passwords. If the site uses another method to break your browser's password manager, such as having two password fields or submitting the form using JavaScript, this bookmarklet won't help.

htmlarea ie ()

Lets you edit textareas expecting HTML code as wysiwyg. (IE)

htmlarea moz ()

Lets you edit textareas expecting HTML code as wysiwyg. (Mozilla)

Wysiwyg editing in web pages only works in Mozilla 1.4+ and Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1+. Some Mozilla derivatives and some unofficial Mozilla Firebird builds don't enable it.