Step 1: Choose a Suitable Browser

You need to have one of the three web browsers that are known to work with today's Identity Selectors:

1. Internet Explorer 7 - if you are on Windows but don't have IE7 yet, you can get it from here.
   
2. Firefox - if you don't have firefox yet, you can get it here.  This is the best choice for Linux/Unix users, at this time.
3. Safari - if you are on a Mac, it is already installed, you're done.

Step 2: Get an Identity Selector

You can choose one of several Identity Selectors, depending on what type of computer you are coming from:

1. Windows - you can download CardSpace (and trigger it either from Firefox or from IE7)  or you can use the XMLDAP Firefox browser extension.  Note that if you are on an older windows platform, you may not be able to install CardSpace.
2. Mac - you can use either the Firefox extension or the Safari extension
3. Anything else -  you need to use the XMLDAP Firefox extension.

Step 3: Link the two up, if necessary

1. Windows CardSpace with Firefox - to kick off the CardSpace client in the right situations, you have to install a browser extension - go to Kevin's blog,  Perpetual Motion to get it. Note that if you try to save the selector, it will save with the file extension of .xpi.zip -- don't try to extract it before you install it, just rename the .xpi.zip file to .xpi and install.
2. XMLDAP Identity Selector - Current versions of this extension default to using Windows CardSpace instead of the built-in browser code. Once you install the extension, you need to go to Tools->Options, and click on the "Identity Selector" tab.  Change the dropdown box to say "xmldap.org Identity Selector". 

Step 4: Go to a site requiring information cards

An example of a site that you can go to that requires an information card is the Pamela Project Test Blog .  You will usually see a sign that asks you to either login or register with an information card -- click that image or link, and your identity selector should pop up.  In the Test Blog, you would click on the "Use an Information Card" link, or click on the picture of the hand holding the card.  Note that if you've performed steps 1-3 correctly, you should see a green streetlight and the words "Selector Installed" on this particular login screen.

 

Step 5: Create an Information Card and send it

This step is hopefully intuitive once you see the identity selector -- you will see something that says "Add a New Card" or "New Card" - click that and fill out the information you want to send.    Once that's done you will have to save the card and send it.  I (Pamela) will try and add some screen shots on this as quickly as I can to make this easier to understand.

Congratulations - you've just used an Information Card!