Using Bitwarden should be very straightforward. There aren’t 1000 different options to choose from, and you won’t find yourself losing passwords or anything like that.
This will walk you through the very basic usage of adding an entry in your vault. There are a few more things you can do, such as import passwords from your current password vault and the like, but I’ll leave that to the Bitwarden site to cover.
Feature Overview
I find myself wanting a few things most of the time:
- Adding a login to a website or similar, with flexibility on what is added and how
- Categorizing those accounts in a way that makes them easy to find
- A search feature that makes them really easy to find when I forget how I categorized them (ha!)
- Never show me the password unless I really want to see it (avoiding curious individuals)
Bitwarden seems to cover all of this handily without over-complicating matters.
Folders
The way of categorizing things in Bitwarden is by using folders. Pretty straightforward: By putting an item in a folder, you can easily select just that folder for viewing to reduce the number of items you’re seeing.
Why do I introduce these first? Well, you can’t dynamically add a folder when adding an item. So, if you have some general categories like “Work” and “Home”, it’s best to create the folders first, then add items and select the folder as part of that workflow. Forgot to add a folder first? No biggie, just add the item without a folder, then edit the item after the folder is created and add it to the newly-created folder.
How to create a folder is slightly different whether you’re using the web or desktop app versus the mobile app.
HOW TO ADD A FOLDER – WEB AND DESKTOP APP
After logging in, simply click the plus sign next to “Folders” on the left, and add the folder. It couldn’t be easier.
HOW TO ADD A FOLDER – MOBILE APP
- After logging in, click the gear icon in the lower-right corner to enter settings
- Under “Manage”, click “Folders”
- Click the plus symbol in the lower-right corner and add the folder
If you’ve added folders, great. Time to add items
Item Types
Bitwarden comes with several item types which cover 99% of the stuff that you’ll want to track.
LOGIN
This will be for the standard username/password information for websites and the like. However, you can also add custom fields to these which allow you to, for example, add the username/password for a website as well as the frequent flyer ID that is related by adding a custom field named “Skymiles” (yes, I have Delta on the mind) and entering the information.
CARD
This is for storing credit card or other card-like information. Again, there is the available option of custom fields if the standard information doesn’t fit the bill.
IDENTITY
This can cover anything from SSNs of the kids to passport information to contact lists (like you don’t have enough of those!). Again, custom fields might be your friend here.
SECURE NOTE
You can think of this as the catch-all, if you want. If none of the other item types make sense or are useful for what you’re trying to enter, use this. You can use it as a post-it note of sorts, or you can add the custom fields here too. By default things aren’t masked here (if you select the item, you’ll see the content in clear view), so keep that in mind.
Adding Items
- Click “Add Item+” (web interface) or the big button with a plus symbol on it (desktop/mobile app)
- For the mobile app it will ask you what type of item you’re adding, so select it (for the web/desktop app, the drop-down list will default to Login)
- Enter all of the information that you’d like. For any type that has a URI (a.k.a URL), if you enter the web address and Bitwarden can glean the icon from it, it will pull it in. This is handy for being able to quickly identify items in a list, but isn’t necessary
- For passwords you can use the integrated password generator if you’d like, which is indicated either with double arrows in a circle or a single circular arrow
- Be sure to select a folder if you’d like. Depending on the app this may not be on the visible part of the screen and you’ll need to scroll down
- Once all of the information you’d like it entered, either click “Save” (web/mobile app) or the disk icon (desktop)
Congratulations, you’ve added your first item!
Copying Passwords Without Seeing Them
I’d say one of the best things about using a program like Bitwarden is that you don’t need to view or remember any password again if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to see the password to enter it. As long as you are familiar with switching between applications on your desktop or mobile device, you should be set. The common flow would be:
- Reach a website or application on your PC or mobile device that requires a login that you don’t remember
- Either launch Bitwarden or swap to Bitwarden if you’ve already opened it previously. How to do this depends on your phone and OS version, so I’ll just assume you know how to or know how to ask someone that does.
- Login to Bitwarden if needed, or use your fingerprint on a capable mobile device
- Scroll or search for your entry, then select it
- Copy the wanted information by clicking the copy icon (looks like two pieces of paper) to the right of the given entry
- Switch back to the website/application
- Paste the information in the wanted field
- Repeat this process for anything else you need
Where To Go From Here
I’ll end the instructions here, as once you add items to Bitwarden it should be straightforward how you can edit or search for items in the app. You can look into the browser plugins that they have if you’d like, as they offer handy things like auto-populating your username/password where possible and similar.
If you think a topic should be covered here, just let me know and I can add it.