How to Automatically Fill Forms with Zero Effort

Filling in forms can become pretty repetitive (and dare we say dull) when you do it every day. But, if you work on the web, it’s part of the deal. You might need to submit your own personal details or input data about customers, clients, or candidates into your systems. 

Using software to automatically fill forms can save you time and effort. And we think Magical (yep, that’s us!) is probably the best software to automatically enter data into forms. The Magical Chrome app is easy to use, requires minimal setup, and it’s extremely versatile. 🪄

In this post, we’re going to show you how Magical works for automatically filling forms. We’ll also contrast and compare against a couple of other (less robust) alternatives for automatic form filling. 

Magical: the easiest way to autofill forms

Magical has two key capabilities that help you automatically fill out the fields in your form:

• Transfers. This lets you instantly move data from your open tabs to forms in other tabs or applications. No manual copy-pasting required.

• Text expansion. You can save phrases and blocks of text as shortcuts, and recall them in forms with just a couple of keystrokes.
  

With Magical, you can ditch the drudgery and make filling out forms quick and easy. Here’s how you can use our app in different scenarios:

1. For inputting your own personal details

If you’re a human being who uses the internet (our bet is… you are), you frequently have to enter your personal details into forms. These include typing out info like:

• Full name 
• Job title
• Work email
• Company address
• Home address
• Credit card details

Even if you’ve memorized these things and you can type them with your eyes closed, entering the same bit of text gets old pretty fast.  And it’s especially tiring if you’re juggling various email IDs and use different details for different purposes. 

Enter, Magical. The Magical app lets you set up text shortcuts so they’re there at your fingertips whenever you need them. 

For example, here’s how Spiderman would create a shortcut for his real name: 🕸️

Now, he just needs to key in //name next time he wants to fill his name into a form, and Magical takes care of the rest:

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Similarly, Peter Benjamin Parker can create an email shortcut for imnotspiderman@outlook.com and store it as a shortcut using //email (as well as his other emails, which he then selects from a list under the form field). This makes it effortless for him to fill in forms anywhere on the web.

2. For adding details of other people (e.g., applicant, customer, or client details)

Sales pros, recruiters, and customer service teams handle a lot of information about prospects, applicants, customers, and users. 

Sales teams fill in forms with prospect details or update their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) with new data. Recruiters move applicant data from one place to another and update their ATS (Applicant Tracking System) throughout the day. Customer service reps respond to queries and complaints in a consistent yet personalized way—and make sure they keep all their ticket information up-to-date. They’re all time-consuming tasks.

This is where Magical really shines. 

Thanks to the Transfers functionality, you don’t need to create new shortcuts or save applicant or customer data to autofill your forms. You just need to have the right tabs open with the details you need, and Transfers takes care of the rest with zero manual effort.

For example, you can update your CRM with the details of a list of new customers by keeping your Google Sheets tab open with the customer information. Transfers will teleport the data into your CRM. No more copy-paste madness. 

How do I automatically fill out a form without using Magical?

So, you want to auto-fill your forms the non-magical way? Here are a couple of options to think about if you don’t want to try out Magical’s free app:

1. Using your browser’s built-in auto-fill functionality

You can use your browser’s native auto-fill feature to automatically enter your personal details into web forms. However, these native auto-fill tools typically offer very limited options. 

They’ll usually stop at: 

• Passwords
• Addresses
• Email addresses
• Credit card information

For the most simple form-filling needs, native auto-fill tools may just about suffice. Here’s how to access your browser’s auto-fill features:

• Microsoft Edge. Press the “Settings and More” icon in the upper-right corner. Proceed to select Settings > Profiles, and then use “Personal Info”, “Passwords”, and “Payment Info” to add your details.
  
  
• Mozilla Firefox. Press the Settings icon in the upper-right corner, and then select “Settings” from the drop-down menu. Now, press “Privacy and Security” and use the Forms and Autofill section.
  
  
• Google Chrome. Press the Settings icon in the upper-right corner, go to Settings > Autofill, and choose from the options:  “Passwords”, “Payment Methods”, and “Addresses and More”.
  
  
• Safari. On the menu bar at the top of the screen, open the “Safari” menu tab and select Preferences > Autofill. Check the boxes for the fields where you want to enable auto-fill. 

2. Combining Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel with automation tools

This more complex method can be used to auto-fill your internal systems with data or move large volumes of information from one place to another. 

You can use a workflow automation tool like Zapier to connect your different apps (e.g. Google Sheets and your ATS or CRM) to move data between both platforms. Zapier supports more than 3,000 integrations, and its closest competitor, Make, supports over 1,000. 

The downside is that these workflow automation tools tend to require a lot of setup before they start to make your life easier by autofilling forms. You’ll need to connect both apps and set up automation flows to move the data between specific places. So while these tools can serve your purpose, they aren’t as easy-to-use or as versatile as Magical – which is a no-code solution – for auto-filling forms. 

What is the best autofill program?

Using Magical is the quickest and easiest way to automatically fill in your forms, and it works wherever you do. Whether you need to enter your personal details or information about a prospect, we’ve got you covered. Add Magical to Chrome for free to start saving time today. 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I automatically fill out a form?

You can use the Magical text shortcuts to automatically fill out forms with your personal details. If you need to fill webforms in with other data – for example a prospect’s details – Magical lets you teleport data between apps from your open tabs without doing any integrations.

2. How do I automatically fill out Google Forms?

With Magical! Our text expansion shortcuts and Transfers functionality lets you automatically fill out Google Forms – and if you use MS Excel, it works there too. 

3. How do I autofill my browser?

Popular browsers like Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari have native auto-fill tools …  but with limited features and functionality. We’ve discussed how to use these built-in features to auto-fill forms in the previous section.