Copyright: Copyright (c) 1997, Shaun Ivory, All Rights Reserved


Contents
Help File for Whisper 32

This help file contains the full documentation for the version of  Whisper 32 with which it was packaged. There is no written documentation, but you should be able to find all that you need to begin work with Whisper 32 in here.

When you're using Whisper 32's dialog boxes, you can get help on that dialog box by pressing F1 or clicking the "Help" button, if one is available.

Introduction

This section offers general information on Whisper 32, tells you where you can get the latest version, and answers licensing questions

Procedures

This section tells you how to go about doing basic things in Whisper 32, and explains some of Whisper 32's features.

Commands

This section gives you information on each of Whisper 32's menu commands.

Keyboard Commands

This section defines the keyboard equivalents for all of Whisper 32's functions.

Whisper 32 is Copyright ©1996-2003 by Shaun Ivory


Commands
Whisper 32 Menus

File Menu

New

Open...

Save

Save As...

Export...

Print...

Print Preview

Print Setup...

Change Password...

Exit

Edit Menu

Undo

Cut

Copy Password, Copy

Copy Username

Paste

Clear Clipboard

Open URL

Edit Entry...

Add Entry...

Delete Entry

View Memo...

View Menu

Tool Bar

Status Bar

Font...

Show All Columns

Sort Submenu

by Service Name

by User Name

by Password

Display Passwords

Lock Now

Options...

Help Menu

Contents

Search...

Keyboard...

About...


Toolbar

Here is the Whisper 32 toolbar:

Click on a button to go to the topic that describes it.


New
File|New

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+N

The command creates a new, empty password list.  You can enter new passwords by selecting Add Entry... from the Edit menu.


Open
File|Open

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+O

This command will allow you to browse for and open an existing Whisper data file.


Save
File|Save

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+S

The command will allow you to save the currently open password list.


Print
File|Print...

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+P

The command opens the system print dialog box and allows you to print the currently open password list.


Print Preview
File|Print Preview

This command allows you to preview, on screen, a printout of the currently open password list.


Cut
Edit|Cut

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+X

Remove the currently selected password records from the list and place them on the clipboard. If there is only one password record selected when this command is invoked, Whisper will place the password for this record on the clipboard as ANSI formatted text.


Copy
Edit|Copy Password, Copy

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+C

Place the currently selected password records on the clipboard. If there is only one password record selected when this command is invoked, Whisper will place the password for this record on the clipboard as ANSI formatted text.


Paste
Edit|Paste

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+V

This command will add any password records that have been placed on the clipboard using either the Edit|Copy Password, Copy or Edit|Cut commands.


Undo
Edit|Undo

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Z

This command will undo the effects of many commands, including Edit|Add Entry..., Edit|Delete Entry... and Edit|Edit Entry....


Edit Entry
Edit|Edit Entry...

Keyboard shortcut: Enter

This command will bring up the Edit Entry dialog box, with the currently selected password available for editing.


View Memo
Edit|View Memo...

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+M

If the currently selected entry has any text in the memo field, this command will open a dialog with a read-only text area that will let you view the text or copy it to the clipboard.


Add Entry
Edit|Add Entry...

Keyboard shortcut: Insert

This command will bring up the Edit Entry dialog box with a new, empty password record.


Delete Entry
Edit|Delete Entry

Keyboard shortcut: Delete

This command will delete the currently selected password records.


About
Help|About...

This command will bring up the About Dialog which gives information about the program version, copyright and the system on which it is running.


Save As
File|Save As...

Save the currently open file using a different name.


Export
File|Export...

Save the currently open file as a comma-delimited text file.  This is useful for importing the data into other programs.


Print Setup
File|Print Setup...

This command allows you to change the current default printer for this application and change various printer options.


Change Password
File|Change Password...

The command allows you to change the password for, or assign a new password to, the currently open password file.  It will invoke the Change Password dialog.


File Exit
File|Exit

Keyboard shortcut: Alt+F4

This command will cause the program top end, after prompting the user to save unsaved work.


Copy Username
Edit|Copy Username

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+U

If there is only one password record selected when this command is invoked, Whisper will place the password for this record on the clipboard as ANSI formatted text.


Open URL
Edit|Open URL

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+H

If there is an URL in the "Memo" field of the currently selected password record, this command will open a properly configured browser and load this document.  See the Choose URL Dialog.

Here is a complete list of all the URL types that are recognized: http:,https:,ftp:,mailto:,nntp:,file: and telnet:


Clear Clipboard
Edit|Clear Clipboard

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+R

This command will clear the clipboard if there is any information on it that was placed there by Whisper 32.


Toolbar
View|Toolbar

This command will toggle the visibity of the toolbar.


Status bar
View|Status Bar

This command will toggle the visibity of the status bar.


Font
View|Font...

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+F

This command will allow you to change the font used to display the password list.


Show All Columns
View|Show All Columns

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+K

This command will make all the columns displayed in the password list visible and the same width.


Sort by Service Name
View|Sort|by Service Name

This command will sort the password list by the Service Name.


Sort by User Name
View|Sort|by User Name

This command will sort the password list by the User Name.


Sort by Password
View|Sort|by Password

This command will sort the password list by the Password.


Display Passwords
View|Display Passwords

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+D

This command will toggle displaying the passwords and displaying placeholder characters.


Lock Now
View|Lock Now

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+L

This command will immediately lock the program and display the password prompt dialog.  If you press "Escape" or click the "Cancel" button, the program will immediately exit.


Options
View|Options

This command will allow you to change various options that affect the way Whisper 32 looks and behaves. When you invoke this command, you will get a property page with the following property sheets:

·	Options

·	Backups

·	Passwords

·	Printing


Keyboard Commands

Key	Command
Ctrl+N	File|New
Ctrl+O	File|Open...
Ctrl+S	File|Save
Ctrl+P	File|Print...
Ctrl+Z	Edit|Undo
Ctrl+X	Edit|Cut
Ctrl+C	Edit|Copy Password, Copy
Ctrl+U	Edit|Copy Username
Ctrl+V	Edit|Paste
Ctrl+R	Edit|Clear Clipboard
Enter	Edit|Edit Entry...
Insert	Edit|Add Entry...
Delete	Edit|Delete Entry
Ctrl+M	Edit|View Memo...
Ctrl+F	View|Font...
Ctrl+K	View|Show All Columns
Ctrl+D	View|Display Passwords
Ctrl+L	View|Lock Now
F1	Help|Contents


Edit Entry Dialog

Service name

Enter the name of the service here.  This can be any descriptive name, for example: "My Internet Service Provider"

User name

Enter the username for this account here.  This would normally be the name you use to activate this account, for example: "sivory"

Password

Enter the password for this account here.

Generate

If you would like a really ugly, random password, click this button to bring up the Generate Password dialog.

Start date

This is the date on which this password was last changed.

Expiration date

This is the date on which this password will expire.  On this date, the icon to the left of the Service Name will change from a yellow padlock ( [image]) to a red padlock ( [image]).

Days to live

Enter the number of days you would like this password to remain current for, starting from the Start date (above).

Never expire

If the checkbox is selected, the password for this record will never expire.

Memo

You can put any text you want to in this area.  You might want to put the URL of the service provider's home page here, for example: "http://www.mindspring.com/".


Generate Password Dialog

...can contain Characters

Allow the generated password to contain alphabetic characters, that is, the characters A-Z.

Mixed case

If this radio button is selected, the characters in the password will be mixed upper and lower case, for example ABCdef.

Lower case

If this radio button is selected, the characters in the password will all be lower case, for example abcdef.

Upper case

If this radio button is selected, the characters in the password will all be upper case, for example ABCDEF.

...can contain Digits

Allow the generated password to contain numeric characters, that is, the digits 0-9

...can contain Symbols

Allow the generated password to contain symbols, that is, the characters !@#$%^&*()_+

...must start with a character

The generated password will begin with a character, whose case is selected by the radio buttons Mixed case, Lower case, and Upper case.

...must be limited to phone dial characters

The generated password will consist of a sequence of uppercase characters, except for Q and Z.

...is generated using this custom mask:

The password generated will use a custom password mask.  This especially useful for generating pronounceable passwords that are easy to remember.

...must contain between n and m characters

The generated password will contain between n and m characters, inclusive.

Password

The is where the generated password will be displayed.

Generate

Generate a password based on the state of the other controls in the dialog box.

Continue

Place the generated password in the Edit Entry Dialog.


Introduction
Introduction to Whisper 32

Legal Disclaimer

Whisper 32 is supplied on an as-is basis. The author offers no warranty of its fitness for any purpose whatsoever, and accepts no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage incurred by its use. Period. Here is the license

Whisper 32 is not a supported product. Shaun Ivory accepts no commitment or liability to address any problems that may be encountered in using it; however, Shaun is always interested to hear about any bugs or deficiencies.

What is Whisper 32?

Whisper 32 is a Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT password manager. It has the following features:

·	Store all of your passwords in one file

·	Built-in password generator

·	Passwords may be set to expire at user-configurable intervals

·	Never type in passwords or user-names: use the Windows clipboard to transfer them

·	Automatic backups

Where can I get the latest version?

The current home of this program is http://www.ivory.org/whisper.html.

This is subject to change, however.  An Internet search for password and whisper will probably yield success if the listed WWW address is vacant.

Acknowledgements

The people listed in the "credits" dialog box in Whisper 32: Ana Carder, Marina Laneri and Chris Rosa, all helped by pointing out bugs and suggesting improvements.  In addition, I would like to thank all those who beta-tested Whisper.

Much of the text editing was done with Alan Phillips' Programmer's File Editor: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/ -- Ah, those were the days... :)

Using And Distributing Whisper 32

Whisper 32 may be freely used for any purpose. You may use it privately or in the course of your work; there is no fee, and no registration is required. You may distribute it to anyone, and you may place it on any archive or bulletin board system. You may not charge anyone for it other than a reasonable fee to cover your distribution costs. Normally, you should distribute Whisper 32 in the form as supplied by the author; however, you may repackage it to suit the conventions and needs of an archive or bulletin board system. Whisper 32 may not be distributed as part of any commercial product without a prior licence agreement.

Whisper 32 may be reviewed for any publication, whether in hard copy or electronic form, without the author's prior permission.


License

Whisper is "unsupported freeware."

You may not modify, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble (except to the extent applicable laws specifically prohibit such restriction), or create derivative works based on the Software, or remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Software.

Title, ownership rights, and intellectual property rights in and to the Software shall remain with Shaun Ivory. The Software is protected by the copyright laws of the United States and international copyright treaties.

Unless otherwise provided by written agreement with Shaun Ivory, this software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantibility of fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Software is borne by you. Should the Software prove defective, you and not Shaun Ivory assume the entire cost of any service and repair. This disclaimer of warranty constitutes an essential part of the agreement. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW EXCLUSIONS OF AN IMPLIED WARRANTY, SO THIS DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU AND YOU MAY HAVE OTHER LEGAL RIGHTS THAT VARY FROM STATE TO STATE OR BY JURISDICTION.

While reasonable efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of this software, in no event shall Shaun Ivory be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any defect in this software.

This license will terminate automatically if you fail to comply with the limitations described above. On termination, you must destroy all copies of the Software.

What do you want for nothing?

Shaun Ivory

shaun@ivory.org


About Dialog

This dialog box lists the following pieces of information:

1.	Program Version

2.	Compile Date

3.	Current Platform

4.	Available Memory

This information should accompany all bug reports and feature requests.


Search Help
Help|Search...

Select this menu item to bring up the WinHelp topic search dialog.


Keyboard Help
Help|Keyboard...

Select this menu item to bring up the WinHelp topic that lists keyboard shortcuts and accelerators.


Help Contents
Help|Contents

Keyboard shortcut: F1

Select this menu item to bring up the WinHelp contents for this help document.


Change Password Dialog

Old password

Type in the current password here.  This edit box will be disabled if there is no password for the currently open file.

New password

Type in the new password here.

Confirm new password

Type in the new password here, again. If this password and the previous password don't match, the dialog box cannot be closed.


Password Prompt Dialog

Filename

This is the file to which this password belongs.

Password

Type the password associated with this file here.


Options Dialog

Show passwords in list

If this checkbox is selected, the passwords for each password record will be displayed in the third column of the list.  If it is not selected, the third column in the list will contain asterisks (*) in place of the password.

Warn if files are not password protected

If this checkbox is selected, any password files which have no password assigned to them will cause a warning to appear when they are opened.

Clear clipboard on exit

If this checkbox is selected, the clipboard will be cleared each time the program is exited, if there are any passwords on it.

Minimize to system tray

If this checkbox is selected, when Whisper is minimized, it will place a small icon in the "System Tray" like this:

When it is minimized to the System Tray, the following menu will appear when you single-click the System Tray icon with the right mouse button:

The default menu item, invoked if you double-click the System Tray icon with left mouse button, will restore the Whisper 32 window to its previous position
If this checkbox is unchecked, the program will minimize normally.  Note: This option is not available under Windows NT 3.51.


Backups Dialog

No backups

If this option is selected, no automatic backups of any kind will be performed.

Use extension

If this option is selected, each time you save your password file, the previous version will be saved with the same path and filename, but it will have the extension specified here.

Use directory

If this option is selected, saving the file will create a backup in this directory, with the same name and extension.

Browse

Search for the backup directory by clicking this button.


Passwords Dialog

Days

By default, each new password will expire this many days from its last from the date on which it was last changed.

Never expire

If this option is selected, by default new passwords will never expire.

Default user name

Normally, when you create a new password record, the user name is initially the name you used to log in to Windows.  If you would like to use a different default username, enter it here.


Printer Fonts Dialog

Heading: Font Name, Point Size

This is the font that will appear at the top of each printed page.

Title: Font Name, Point Size

This is the font in which all "titles" will appear, i.e. Service Name.

Body: Font Name, Point Size

This is the font in which all other fields will appear, i.e. User Name, Password and Memo.

Reset

Reset the fonts to their original value, before the dialog was invoked.

Defaults

Reset the fonts to their default values.


Procedures

The Main Window: What does it look like?

Running Whisper 32

Configuring Whisper 32

Using Whisper 32 to log in to a service


Main Window

The main window contains many useful items.  To find out what an area in the main window does, left-click on it.


Running Whisper 32

You can run Whisper 32 in one of several ways:

1.	From the Start Menu or the File Menu in Program Manager, select Run and type:
d:\path\whisper.exe
where d: is the drive and path is the directory in which the whisper.exe file can be found

2.	Select the Whisper 32 icon from the Start Menu or Program Manager, where it was placed during installation

3.	Place Whisper 32 in the Startup group, so it always runs when you restart your computer


Configuring Whisper 32

Most of the configuration options for Whisper 32 can be located on the View|Options property page.

 Some points to remember:

1.	You should always password protect your password file.

2.	It is a good idea to always clear the clipboard on exit.

3.	You should always back up your password file to a separate hard disk or a floppy disk, in case of a disk crash.

4.	You should change your passwords frequently, especially important ones like your Internet Service Provider password.


Logging In
Using Whisper 32 to log in to a service

The recommended method for using Whisper to aid logging in to a service is this:

Start Whisper 32.  (See Running Whisper 32)

Highlight the record that corresponds with the service you are logging into.

Select "Copy Username" from the "Edit" menu in Whisper 32 (or press Ctrl+U).

Select "Paste" from the "Edit" menu in the application you are using to log in to the service.  Make sure your text insertion cursor is located within the edit-control associated with a username.

Select "Copy Password" from the "Edit" menu in Whisper 32 (or press Ctrl+C).

Select "Paste" from the "Edit" menu in the application you are using to log in to the service.  Make sure your text insertion cursor is located within the edit-control associated with a password.

[Optional] Select "Clear Clipboard" from the "Edit" menu in Whisper 32.  This prevents someone from coming along afterwards and just pasting the password that is still on the clipboard into a text editor.


Browse Dialog
Select Directory Dialog

Use this dialog box to select an existing directory from any disk on your system.


Credits Dialog

This dialog box lists the people who contributed to Whisper 32.

In addition, copyright and legal information regarding the encryption library is listed here.

To pause the scrolling display, double-click on the display using the left mouse button.


Backup Error Dialog

This dialog box will be displayed if the designated backup method produces a file with the same name as the current filename.  This problem can be solved by changing the backup options in the Backups property page in the View|Options... dialog box.

Disable backups

If you select this item, backups will be disabled.  Backups can be re-enabled in the Backups property page in the View|Options... dialog box.


Choose URL Dialog

If there is more than one URL in the memo field of the currently selected password record when you select the menu item Edit|Open URL, this dialog box is displayed. Select an URL, and press "OK."  This URL will be opened in your correctly installed web browser.


No Password Warning Dialog

Show this message in the future

If you de-select this checkbox, this message will no longer be displayed.  This warning can be re-enabled in the Options Dialog.

Assign

If you click this button, you will have the opportunity to assign a password to this file, through the Change Password Dialog.

Continue

If you click this button, this open operation will continue.


Custom Password Mask Characters

A custom password mask consists of a string of one or more of the following characters.

When you generate a password using a custom password mask, characters in the mask string which are found in the following table under the column Mask Character are replaced with a random character from the corresponding column labeled Characters.

Example:

The string of Mask Characters cvcvcvc# could generate any of the following passwords, taken directly from Whisper: fihaled6, banomeg3, tovizod3 or javumen9.  These password are both easy to remember and nearly impossible to guess, so you can use them even when Whisper 32 isn't handy!

Mask Character	Character Set Name	Characters
#	Digit	0123456789
c	Lowercase Consonant	bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz
C	Uppercase Consonant	BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYZ
v	Lowercase Vowel	aeiou
V	Uppercase Vowel	AEIOU
P	Phone Dial Character	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPRSTUVWXY
U	Uppercase Character	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
l	Lowercase Character	abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
@	Mixed Case Character	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
%	Alpha-Numeric Characters	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
$	Symbols	!@#$%^&*()_+
*	Any Character	0123456789 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz !@#$%^&*()_+


This column lists the passwords for each record.  To toggle password display on and off, select View|Display Passwords.  To copy the password to the clipboard, select Edit|Copy Password or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C.


This area of the status bar contains information about the keyboard state.


This area of the status bar will identify, at all times, whether or not password information is on the clipboard.


The lock icon in the main window will change color to denote the expiration status of the password.

A Green icon means expiration is turned off for this password.

A Yellow icon means the password will expire, but it has not yet done so.

A Red icon means the password has expired.


The lock icon in the main window will change color to denote the expiration status of the password.

A Green icon means expiration is turned off for this password.

A Yellow icon means the password will expire, but it has not yet done so.

A Red icon means the password has expired.


The lock icon in the main window will change color to denote the expiration status of the password.

A Green icon means expiration is turned off for this password.

A Yellow icon means the password will expire, but it has not yet done so.

A Red icon means the password has expired.


The column headers allow you to change the sort order of the password list.  To change the sort order, just left-click once on the title of the column you wish to sort on.


The Whisper 32 toolbar allows you to use your mouse to execute common functions.


This column contains the service name of each password.


This column contains the user name associated with each password.  To copy this information to the clipboard, select Edit|Copy Username or press Ctrl+U.