How to fill the same web form automatically

Why the same form, again

Some forms come round again and again: a weekly timesheet, a support request, a booking form for a room, a contact form you send to many suppliers, a test form you fill in while building a website. The fields are the same each time and so are most of your answers. Typing them is a minute you don't need to spend, many times a week.

The built-in way

Chrome has autofill. In Chrome's settings, under Autofill and passwords, Addresses and more stores names, email addresses, phone numbers and postal addresses, and offers them when a form asks for those things. Chrome can also use the name and email from your Google account.

It works well on ordinary checkout and sign-up forms. It's less helpful when:

• a field isn't one Chrome recognises, like a project code, a department or a reference number;
• the form labels its fields in a way Chrome doesn't understand;
• you want different values on different sites.

The manual way

Without a tool, the fastest manual approach is to keep your answers in a text file and paste them field by field, using Tab to move between fields. Clipboard history helps too: on Windows, Windows+V shows recent copies, so you can copy your answers once and paste each in turn.

Make it permanent with a tool

A userscript can fill a form for you. It's a small piece of JavaScript that runs on a website you choose. A fill userscript adds a Fill button near the form, and when you click it, it puts your saved answers into the right fields. Because it's built for that one form, it can fill any field, including the ones autofill doesn't understand, like dropdowns and checkboxes.

Two details make it safe and useful. The values should live in the tool where you can edit them, so when your company or email changes you update one place. And it should never submit the form itself. You look over what's filled, change anything that's different this time, and press the site's own submit button.

ScriptPanda is a Chrome extension that builds that tool from the request at the end of this guide. Open its side panel on the form, paste the request, and it writes the tool for that form and installs it. You can then ask for more fields to be filled, or for two or three sets of values to choose from, such as work and personal.

Filling a form doesn't call AI, so clicking Fill doesn't use your plan's requests. Building the tool and changing it do.

Keep secrets out of it

Never put passwords, card numbers, security codes or other secrets in a fill tool. A tool's values are kept in your browser with the tool itself, without the protection a password manager gives them. For passwords, use Chrome's password manager or another dedicated one. For cards, use the payment autofill your browser or bank provides.

Limits

The tool fills the form on the page it was built for, in Chrome on your computer, when you click the button. It doesn't submit anything, and it doesn't fill forms on a schedule or in the background. Some forms check each field as it's typed, and may need you to click into a field before they accept a filled value. If the form changes and fields come out empty, open ScriptPanda on the form, say which fields are wrong, and ask it to fix the tool for the form as it is now.