Written on December 20th, 2008 at 12:12 am by Jeff Chandler
Save Time By Auto Filling Comment Forms
In this post Jeff Chandlerhighlights a cool tool for auto filling in comment forms on blogs.
Ok Problogger faithful, I’m going to keep it short and sweet this week by telling you about a cool FireFox extension which is sure to save you some time in the long run. Generally, every blog out on the web has a comment form. This form normally consists of Name, Email, Website, and Comment. Having to type in those first three fields time and time again can be annoying and cause you not to comment at all. That’s where easyComment comes into play.
Easycomment works by looking for the typical fields that are reserved for comment forms and filling them in with predetermined values. Essentially, after you install the extension, you’ll have to fill out the form with your credentials. These values are what will be placed in the blog comment form. After you type that in, filling those fields is as simple as clicking the easyComment button which should look a little something like this.
That’s all there is to it. One thing to keep in mind with this or any other extension that fills in forms. The extension will not work on sites that have third party commenting systems such as Disqus or IntenseDebate installed. This is because the form fields are inside a block of code and not in plain HTML which renders the form fields to be indiscoverable.
If you’re looking for an extension that does this and more, check out AutoFillForms. That extension is a bit more complicated to configure but it is used to auto complete entire forms such as user registration areas on forums or websites. However, I’ve written a guide for that extension as well.
Tags: comments, extensions, firefox, forms, savetime
60 Responses to “Save Time By Auto Filling Comment Forms” - Add Yours
File in a Box
December 20th, 2008 12:19 am
Thanks for the great tip, just one bit of advice; don’t use the autofill function for your comment message because that smells a little bit like spam to me :)
Matt | Small Biz Bee
December 20th, 2008 12:36 am
What a time saver, used easyComment for this comment and it worked like a charm! Thanks.
Matt
Cristhian Bedon
December 20th, 2008 12:39 am
Most blogs, have cookies setup so your info stays on, this ad-on seems great for people that want to get there message out quick. This also seems like the autocomplete add-on for when filling-in other forms.
Tomasz Fiedoruk
December 20th, 2008 12:43 am
We can use a Sxipper too :) https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/4865
Blog for Bloggers
December 20th, 2008 12:56 am
Up until now I used my Google auto fill feature, to make commenting a little quicker. Im definitely gonna have to try this
Graeme Sutherland
December 20th, 2008 12:56 am
Genius!
Thanks for the heads up Darren :o)
Graeme
Graeme Sutherland
December 20th, 2008 12:56 am
Genius!
Thanks for the heads up Darren :o)
Graeme
Hendry Lee
December 20th, 2008 12:57 am
I use RoboForm. Many people think it is just to save passwords, but beyond that it is also a form-filling software.
Just create and complete a profile and press one button. Bam… the needed information is filled in automatically.
Just my two cents.
Lee Munroe
December 20th, 2008 12:57 am
Great stuff! Was just thinking the other day that I could do with something like this.
Mike Nichols
December 20th, 2008 1:02 am
Firefox on the Mac — my Mac, at least — is quite flaky, and the more extensions you add, the flakier it gets. That means, alas, I won’t be trying this one!
But I’ll keep it in mind for the future.
Thanks for the post, Darren!
Bash Bosh
December 20th, 2008 1:03 am
I use RoboForm, but I’d try to use this FF extension also.
Tarik
December 20th, 2008 1:05 am
Haha wow! Very cool. And I found this post via twitter. You are quickly becoming a go-to guy, Darren.
Thomas Northrop
December 20th, 2008 1:10 am
This is very useful information. However, I find that in most cases you can fill in these forms easily just by double clicking each field. This will work in most word press blogs. Other blog types are not so easy and will not auto fill by this method. In those cases easy comment extension would be a great tool.
Thomas Northrop
LGR
December 20th, 2008 1:10 am
Good find. I will have to give this one a try. Never hurts to save a little time filling out forms.
Jeffro2pt0
December 20th, 2008 1:13 am
Yeah, you got that right. The only thing I don’t like about it is the font color they chose to use for the button. That bright orange is terrible!
A Cowboy's Wife
December 20th, 2008 1:18 am
This is soooo much better than Roboform for me. Thanks so much for sharing…I just used it, heehee:)
adsense alternative
December 20th, 2008 1:18 am
ehm. i guess, i need this one. Its needed. :)
Sumesh
December 20th, 2008 1:23 am
For users with Greasmonkey already installed, Blog Auto Fill (Greasemonkey script) is a better alternative as it isn’t as resource intensive as an extension.
David Hobson
December 20th, 2008 1:32 am
Thanks for the link this extension will save a lot of time. I just used it on this comment.
Dev
December 20th, 2008 1:32 am
This is nice. Its help more to write comments.
Anthony
December 20th, 2008 1:50 am
I download the plugin but its not working, do I need to edit something?
Hugo
December 20th, 2008 2:05 am
Aaah I thought this was some kind of spam tool, which fills in each form automatically. But I’m glad you’ll still have to write down some thougtful words yourself!
Mike
December 20th, 2008 2:10 am
I was using the InFormEnter plugin, which I liked. But I’ll try this one out.
Alex
December 20th, 2008 2:49 am
I use another Firefox add-on FireForm (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=fireform&cat=all) – does the trick very nicely for all sorts of online form filling (obvious exceptions are Flash heavy sites) and (unlike, I believe, RoboForm) is free.
Jonathan - Advanced Life Skills
December 20th, 2008 2:53 am
Nice little timesaver, It does get tedious filling in the same three lines again and again. Thanks
Daniel Massicotte
December 20th, 2008 3:16 am
Anyone know where to go in the FF extension to edit my current settings?
ATLANTA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
December 20th, 2008 4:23 am
Thanks darren…question though: how many comments can you make in a day with this….i know lets have a competition!!!
Jeffro2pt0
December 20th, 2008 4:25 am
@Daniel – Right click on the easyComment button and you should see a menu item called Preferences where you can edit your details.
Rahul
December 20th, 2008 4:35 am
This is certainly a good point that you’ve put forward. But you’ve only talked about just few of these auto form fill-ups.
Do check out https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=auto+complete&cat=all for a complete list of auto complete form fill-ups.
Btw, my fav is Autofill Forms, no doubt about that.
Wendy Merritt
December 20th, 2008 6:11 am
I have Firefox with no special add-on and it already does this for me…and yes it is great. It saves me a ton of time not having to retype the same stuff over and over again. I will file this away for future use, if needed.
blessings,
Wendy
Twitter: Wendy Merritt
Sarah Jo
December 20th, 2008 6:58 am
I also save time by using my Gmail account to filter comments. You can add +whatever to your Gmail address and then use the Gmail filters to send emails to that address to a specified folder.
For example, when I comment on blogs, I used the email address sarahjoaustin+comments@gmail.com, and the Gmail filter skips the inbox and sends them to a comments folder. It doesn’t clutter up my inbox and saves a lot of time!
Bruce > The Big Desk
December 20th, 2008 7:36 am
Terrific tip. I’ll be adding that to my Firefox tonight. Sure it will only save 10 seconds but multiply it out and it really adds up. I like to joke around with my friends that an extra our given to you may not seem like much but if it was your last hour – you’d surely appreciate another one.
Bruce
Mike Macleod
December 20th, 2008 8:16 am
Sweet.
ASANT Media
December 20th, 2008 8:34 am
Just like many people here I have also just used the autofill feature. I think it gets the job done fast enough.
mike
December 20th, 2008 9:26 am
Poor me I still use a dial-up ha.
Sire
December 20th, 2008 12:23 pm
I’ve must have installed something similar to this ages ago and yes it is a time saver. it even allows me to select between email addresses and my blog of preference.
Robin Capper
December 20th, 2008 12:30 pm
I use ActiveWords for this as it is not application specific. I mostly read in RSS Bandit (which uses IE) but the same ActiveWord works in IE, Firefox, Chrome wherever.
http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2008/01/doh-why-not-use.html
Mike
December 20th, 2008 12:50 pm
Maxthon has this feature built in.
Albert | UrbanMonk.Net
December 20th, 2008 6:06 pm
Wowee, this is one of the best extensions ever! I’m using it right now and it’s actually giving me incentive to go out and comment now. I used to get bored of commenting simply because of the tedious nature of filling in the forms, so this is a godsend. Thank you so much!
Cheers,
Albert | UrbanMonk.Net
Modern personal development, entwined with ancient spirituality.
BlogUnion
December 20th, 2008 7:06 pm
It does’t work well with Chinese Characters.
TheDutchSchoolKid
December 20th, 2008 11:09 pm
Sounds good!
But is it also compatible with Chrome?
Harish
December 20th, 2008 11:19 pm
Awesome tool. I always thought of using such tools for time management. Thanks for mentioning. I gonna use it.
BlogPiG
December 21st, 2008 12:38 am
Hmmm… I like the look of this but I’m holding out for something that works with Chrome too. I can’t start taking 3 browsers into the shower..
DoktorThomas
December 21st, 2008 4:44 am
anything “auto-fill” is a potential security risk, no matter how attentuated. I’ll stick with robo form….. and my own wits.
wisdom
December 21st, 2008 10:26 am
Great find, I used it to make this comment.
Anthony Arias
December 21st, 2008 11:27 am
Wow, love this add on. I’m new to this blogging thing and this will make things a lot more convenient. Thanks for the quality info.
Anthony Arias
http://anthonyarias.net
Internet Marketing
December 21st, 2008 3:05 pm
Hi
This is strange. I had just written an article on easycomment myself.
http://www.webseo.com.au/blog/how-to-blog-comment-automatically/
and I used easycomment to comment here. Great post Darren
15 Essential Wordpress Plug-Ins
December 21st, 2008 5:10 pm
This is a little gem, it’s sucha pain to keep re-entering everything everytime! Thanks!
Small Business Marketing
December 22nd, 2008 5:08 am
This is totally awesome. I’ve already installed it
Thanks
Phillip Crum
December 22nd, 2008 6:11 am
fyi-Opera has had this functionality built-in to its browser for years now. Click the “Wand” and the fields are filled in. Any fields that aren’t recognized can be filled in by a right-click and select from a menu of commonly requested form data. (You fill out your menu of items one time, then they’re available from then on.)
And Opera’s latest offering, 10.0 (very stable alpha), is absolutely, lightning fast. You can download a copy here, if you like. http://www.marketingmeasure.com/opera-browser/
Nancy Hendrickson
December 22nd, 2008 10:46 am
Wow – performs exactly as advertised. Thanks for the heads-up – I’m going to post a note about this on my site too – - think of all the time everyone’s readers are going to save.
Bond
December 22nd, 2008 8:15 pm
Hellow, Anyone know about any programs that can autofill ShoutMix & Cbox Widget.
Edward Mendoza
December 22nd, 2008 9:06 pm
What a great time saver, I’ve been looking for an app like this for weeks!
ShoutWhat
December 23rd, 2008 5:41 pm
LoL this auto filling comment forms is awesome, however I’m kinda addicted to typing them(I’ve no idea why). Im a keyboard-typing-addictive!! Cheers anyway for this awesome function.
Richard Trietsch
December 24th, 2008 7:03 pm
In contrary to ShoutWhat I am not that kind of a typing-addict, so I LOVE this tool!
thanks
Richard
http://www.planyoursafari.com
Hot Gym Girl
December 28th, 2008 1:00 pm
Sounds like something worth checking out! Anything to shorten time spent on the web surfing blogs!
Brian Baulch
January 11th, 2009 11:26 am
Great tool Darren thanks for sharing it all l needed now is a tool that l can automatic fill out all my profile page content for social network sites it be nice to save time adding all my profile details each site on manual mode, may be some one in this group has suggestion on this
Amit Banerjee
February 18th, 2009 2:25 pm
What a Time Saver ! …..Now Commenting Will be a Breeze !
Thanks Jeff !
Cindy Sue Causey
March 30th, 2009 5:44 am
Belated response as this just popped up in a search of my inbox.. I’m an Opera fan, too, like Phillip (above)..
Typing in the first letter for the text box at hand, e.g. email address, narrows down the choices from all those stored in one’s Wand.. Because Wand works that way, hoping Opera eventually opens up a few more “Other” slots as it works splendidly for user names when they are saved, too.. :grin:
Mystic Madness
April 16th, 2009 4:56 pm
thanks for this. I have installed the one related to mozilla. This was very helpful.
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