FIGURE D


Wow, pretty dolphins! Roll over picture for a larger image.

The Palm OS and Pocket PC are pretty similar -- pretty much just a picture and menu bar. The PC version has few more buttons. You can see it in Figure E.

FIGURE E


Ooh, rubber ducky! Roll over picture for a larger image.

To create your password, choose between one and eight spots on the picture that you'll want to click on. You will need to be able to remember the spots you choose and the order in which you touch them! I chose two fins and a rock on the sea bottom from the dolphin picture above.

You can touch the same place several times in a row and it will generate different characters. As you touch each of your spots you will see two alpha/numeric characters appear in the upper left corner of the window next to the visKeeper title, as you can see in Figure F.

FIGURE F


As you touch the screen, your password forms. Roll over picture for a larger image.

This is your password. After you click on OK, you will be asked to confirm. If your second try doesn't match, you are better off cancelling and starting over again. If you forget your password, even sfr GmbH will not be able to decrypt it! You will have to start over!

There are several options you can choose from when creating a password:

• Full screen picture (Palm OS only)
• Double scale picture (Pocket PC only)
• Fast login. The safe opens as soon as you have touched the last spot in your password
• Input precision. You can adjust the precision (how close you have to be to the exact touch spot) between 5 and 40 pixels. The default is 20 pixels.

To see what the options screens look like see Figure G, which shows the Pocket PC version.

FIGURE G


Choose your options on the Pocket PC screen. Roll over picture for a larger image.

If you're a Palm OS user, you'll see a screen like that shown in Figure H.

FIGURE H


Palm users will have an options screen like this. Roll over picture for a larger image.

And, if you're using Windows (and you might be whether or not you use Palm OS or Pocket PC), you'll have a simple options screen like that shown in Figure I.

FIGURE I


Here's how Windows looks setting options. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The picture used for the password is called a visual door or visDoor. The software comes with a couple of images but you can also use your own (JPEG, PNG, OR BMP) or download more choices from http://www.visdoors.com. If you want to use your own picture, you'll need to download a freeware program called visMill3 from http://www.visdoors.com that will convert your picture into the appropriate Palm or Pocket PC format.

Data entry
Now you have a security database with strong 128-bit encryption of your data, it's time to enter the information you want to protect.

Another thing I liked about visKeeper is the flexibility it offers for storing data. There are two levels of information: categories and entries. Categories are used to group like types of information and entries are the details in each of the categories.

The default categories of Logins, Bank Accounts, Contacts, and Email accounts were just the beginning. The first thing I did was to create a category for database logins. It included the database name, user name, password, machine host, and a notes field for miscellaneous information. I deleted the Contacts category since none of my contacts need to be kept secure. Those of you who frequently call numbers like 976-BABE or have a "little black book" complete with ratings may want to keep this category!