The new browser extension UI (2024.12.0) has caused some consternation for a (surprisingly large) subset of users whose autofill workflow consists of opening the browser extension window (clicking the Bitwarden icon) and then clicking on the item name in what used to be the “Tab” view (which showed logins that have a URI match as autofill suggestions).
For those users, I would like to show you four different alternative workflows for autofilling, none of which require the browser extension window to be opened at all (other than for unlocking the vault, if it was locked). As the browser extension window remains closed while completing the autofill task, the changes to the UI are immaterial — they neither impair nor enhance the autofilling experience. These are the four alternative methods:
- Automagic Autofill (“Autofill on Page Load”)
- Inline Autofill Menus
- Keyboard Shortcut
- Right-Click Menu
I hope that one of these methods will work for you (you can even enable two or more of these methods at once, to have multiple options when autofilling)!
Automagic Autofill (“Autofill on Page Load”):
To Set Up:
Go to the “Autofill on Page Load” section under Settings > Autofill and check the checkbox for the “Autofill on page load” option; also set the selection for “Default autofill setting for login items” to “Autofill on page load”.
Open the “Edit login” page for one of the login items in your vault, and scroll down to just below the Website (URI) fields, where you will see a selection menu labeled “Autofill on page load?”. Unless you have previously made changes to this setting, it should say “Default (Yes)”. Leave the setting as is, unless it has been set to “No”. You do not have to individually modify your login items, unless you have previously changed this setting to “No” for some logins.
To Use:
Ensure that your browser extension is unlocked, then use your browser to open the login form for an account where you wish to log in. As soon as the page loads in your browser window, Bitwarden automagically fills in the login credentials — no user action required! 
Inline Autofill Menus:
To Set Up:
Go to the “Autofill Suggestions” section under Settings > Autofill and check the checkbox for the “Show autofill suggestions on form fields” option; uncheck the checkbox for “Display suggestions when icon is selected” (you can experiment with this option later, after you are more familiar with this autofilling technique).
When making the above configuration changes, you may see a prompt that asks “Make Bitwarden your default password manager?”. My recommendation is to click “Cancel” at this prompt (you can always make this change later, by enabling the option that is available for “Make Bitwarden your default password manager” in the “Autofill Suggestions” section under Settings > Autofill).
To Use:
Use your browser to open the login form for an account where you wish to log in. If the cursor is not already in the username or password input field, click in (or tab to) one of those input fields. If your vault was previously unlocked, you will now see a list of accounts displayed in a popup menu just below the input field; click on the desired account to autofill the login credentials:
If your vault was not unlocked when you clicked in the username field, then you will instead see a link to “Unlock account” (which will open your browser extension’s unlock prompt). You can then proceed as described above.
Keyboard Shortcut:
To Set Up:
Go to the “Autofill Shortcut” section under Settings > Autofill and read the description under “Manage Shortcuts”. By default, it should say “The autofill login shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+L” on Windows systems (or “…Cmd+Shift+L” on macOS systems). Make a note of the required keyboard combination.
If the “Manage Shortcuts” description says “The autofill login shortcut is not set” (or if you wish to autofill using a keyboard shortcut that is different from the default), then click anywhere within the “Manage Shortcuts” box, and click Continue at the “Continue to browser settings?” prompt. In the browser’s settings for extension keyboard shortcuts, look for the Bitwarden Password Manager keyboard shortcut setting that is labeled “Autofill the last used login for the current website”, and define an appropriate keyboard shortcut to use for autofilling.
Additionally, it is recommended that you go to Settings > Appearance, and ensure that you have checked the checkbox for the option “Show number of login autofill suggestions on extension icon”.
To Use:
Use your browser to open the login form for an account where you wish to log in. Press Ctrl+Shift+L (or whatever keyboard shortcut has been defined for autofilling in your browser extension). If your vault was previously unlocked, this will cause the matching credentials to be autofilled as soon as you press the keyboard shortcut. If you have multiple matching credentials for this login form, then you can press the keyboard shortcut repeatedly, cycling through the matching credentials with each key press.
If your vault was not unlocked when you clicked in the username field, then the browser extension popup will automatically open to the unlock prompt; after unlocking the vault, the popup window will automatically close, and the credentials will be autofilled on the web form.
Right-Click Menu:
To Set Up:
Go to the “Additional Options” section under Settings > Autofill and check the checkbox for the option “Show context menu options”.
To Use:
There are two ways to access the Right-Click Menu. If you are someone who routinely clicks the Bitwarden icon to open the browser extension window, then the method recommended for you is to retrain yourself to right-click on the Bitwarden icon instead of left-clicking. In the context menu that pops up when you right-click the icon, you will see Bitwarden > as either the first item (e.g., on Firefox) or the second item (e.g., on Chrome).
Alternatively, you can right-click anywhere in the open webpage, which will pop up a larger context menu, in which the Bitwarden > menu appears towards the bottom (however, this time, it is prefixed by a blue-white shield icon, making the menu easier to locate).
No matter which of the above two methods you use to access the menu, you would now left-click on (or briefly hover your mouse over) the Bitwarden > item, which opens Bitwarden’s context menu. If your vault was previously unlocked, you will now be able to select an account to autofill, under Autofill Login:
If your vault was not unlocked when you accessed the context menu, then you will only see an “Unlock your vault” option under Bitwarden > Autofill Login. When you select the “Unlock your vault” option, the browser extension popup will automatically open to the unlock prompt; after unlocking the vault, the popup window will automatically close, and the credentials will be autofilled on the web form.
