Item Templates and Default Templates¶
An item template is the shape an item is made from: which fields it has and in what order, which one is shown in lists, whether it has a website, which Type it is listed under, and which password template makes its passwords. Private Passwords comes with seventeen, listed in Items, Logins and Notes, and you can make as many of your own as you like.
An item keeps its own copy of the fields it was made with. Changing a template, or deleting it, never changes an item you already have: only the items you make from it afterwards.
The Item Templates page¶
Open the Info tab and, under Metadata Configuration, tap Item Templates.
Open the Info page and, under Metadata Configuration, click Item Templates. The menu lists it under the same heading.
Every template is listed by name, A–Z or Z–A, with what it is for, its Type and how many fields it has. A built-in template is marked as one, and Changed once you have changed it. A template whose items are logins carries a Login mark, and one whose items are identities an Identity mark.
New Template starts one of your own. Open any template to see or change it; nothing is kept until you choose Save.
[Screenshot: the Item Templates page with Login Credentials, Card and a template of your own]
What a template holds¶
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Name | What it is called in the lists, up to 30 characters. Two templates can't have the same name, whatever the capital letters. |
| Description | What it is for, up to 100 characters, shown under its name. |
| Icon | It marks the template in the lists; the items made from it are not given it. With none, the icon of its Type stands in. |
| Type | The pill its items are listed under. Only the types that are shown are offered. |
| The three switches | Whether its items have a website, are logins, or are identities: see below. |
| Fields | Its fields, in order: see below. |
| The field shown in lists | The Text or Web address field shown beside an item's name in lists, or none. |
| Password | Which password template makes the password of a new item, where the template has a Password field. |
A template's Type decides only where its new items are listed. If the type it is under is hidden, the template is kept but offered nowhere until the type is shown again or another type is chosen.
The switches¶
| Switch | What it does |
|---|---|
| Items have a Website | Its items have a Website, the site they belong to. Turn it off for what belongs to no site, such as a note or a person's details. |
| Contains Login Credentials | For a template whose items are logins, with a username and a password. Only such templates can start a new login: see Default Templates below. |
| Is an Identity | For a template whose items are people or organisations. Any other item can then link to one of them: see Identities. |
A template is a login or an identity, never both: turning one of those two switches on turns the other off.
Of the built-in templates, Login Credentials starts with Contains Login Credentials on, and Personal Identity and Work Identity start with Is an Identity on.
AutoFill offers an item as a login only when its template has Contains Login Credentials on.
With Contains Login Credentials on, Its logins are for the identity lets the template name an identity item. That identity's drag panel then offers Create Login from this template: see An Identity's Drag Panel.
Fields and their order¶
- Add Field adds a field. Give it a label, such as Username, and choose its type: Text, Hidden, Password, Web address, Date or Multi-line, or an Instruction or a Section Separator. Field types explains each.
- A field may have a hint, grey words shown in it while it is empty.
- A field may have an AutoFill number, from 1 to 999: the order the fields are offered in, smallest first. Empty leaves it out.
- Add TOTP adds the place for a one-time code.
- Drag a field by its handle to put it in order, or remove it.
A template must keep a few rules before it can be saved. The page says what is wrong, if anything is:
- At least one field, beside any instructions and separators, and no more than 40.
- One Password field at most. Make any others Hidden.
- Every field has a label, up to 30 characters, and no two fields share one.
- An instruction has words, up to 300 characters; a separator's heading is up to 30 characters, or none.
- No two fields share an AutoFill number.
[Screenshot: a template's page with its fields, the AutoFill numbers and Add Field]
Which password template makes its passwords¶
Where a template has a Password field, its page says which password template makes the password of a new item. The default follows whichever password template is the default when the item is made. Or choose one by name, and new items are made by that one whatever the default is. If the one you chose is later deleted, the default is used.
Choose it under Password, in Made by.
Choose it under The password of a new item is made by.
Three built-in templates name one of their own: Wifi uses Text and Numbers, Wifi Router Admin uses Readable, and Database uses Dashes and dots only.
Favourites at the top of New Item¶
When you start a New Item, the templates are listed by name, and up to three favourites stand above them. Tap or click the star beside a template to make it a favourite, and again to take the star away. Favourites stay in the order you starred them. With three already, take the star from one to make room for another.
Each device keeps its own favourites.
Copying a template¶
Open any template, built-in or your own, and choose Copy. The copy is a new template of your own with everything the original had: its fields, its switches, its Type and its password template. It is named Copy of and the original's name, with a number after it if that name is taken, and it isn't kept until you save it. Change whatever you like.
The built-in templates¶
A built-in template's fields and its Type are the app's, and it can't be deleted. You can change its name, description and icon, whether its items have a Website, the field shown in lists and which password template makes its passwords. To have fields of your own, copy it.
- Hide it: turn off the switch at the top of its page. It is kept, and offered nowhere until you turn the switch on again.
- Restore Original…: once you have changed it, this puts it back as the app has it. It asks first, and your changes to it go.
Deleting a template of your own¶
Open it and choose Delete Template…, then Delete Template. Items made from it keep their fields; the template itself can't be brought back.
A type's Default Template can't be deleted. Make another template that type's Default Template first, or choose None.
Delete Template… isn't offered on a Default Template's page.
Delete Template… is greyed out on a Default Template's page.
Default Templates¶
Each type has a Default Template: the template a new login of that type starts on, from New Login and wherever else a new login is made (see the Default Type). You choose it on the Types page, under each type that is shown.
Only some templates can start a login. They need all four of these:
- Contains Login Credentials on;
- Items have a Website on;
- a username: the field marked as one, as in Login Credentials and its copies, or else the first field with an AutoFill number that isn't a password;
- a Password field.
Templates that are hidden, or listed under a hidden type, are not offered. To begin with, Logins has Login Credentials as its Default Template, and the other types have None. To let another type start logins from a template, make a template of your own under that type, or copy a built-in one, give it a username, a password and a website, and turn Contains Login Credentials on.
[Screenshot: the Types page with Default Type and Default Template under Logins]
What a new login starts on¶
- The type's Default Template, if it still can start a login.
- Otherwise, the first template by name that can.
- If the type has no such template, a plain login of that type, with a Name, a Username, a Password and a Website. Its Template reads None, and its password is made by the default password template.
A new login shows its Type and Template above its fields, each a menu where there is more than one to choose from. Change either, and what you have typed in the name, website, username and password stays.
Continue to Password Templates and the Generator.