For RSS to work, this is what needs to happen…

1. The content provider has to publish a “feed”. If you see one or more of these icons on a web page or in the address field you’re getting warm (ie the page includes a feed):

2. You’ll need software or a web service (called an “aggregator” or “newsreader”). This browses the internet for the feeds you’re interested in and delivers them to your screen

3. You need to “subscribe” to the publisher’s feed.

Newsreaders are generally free. Some are applications that you download. Others work online over your browser. Modern browsers have newsreaders built in. My personal news feed (on the previous page) is generated by Apple’s browser (Safari) but there are similar functions in Internet Explorer and Firefox, for example.

Our blog offers two ways to subscribe, in a reader and by email. But as you’ll see shortly, if you subscribe from your browser you won’t need either of them.

How to subscribe to our blog by email

Enter your address, hit the Subscribe Me button and we’ll send you an email with a link. You’ll need to click the link to validate your subscription. (Yes, you’re a human being; yes, you want to subscribe). Once you validate you’ll receive all new posts by email until such time as you decide to unsubscribe.

How to subscribe to our blog with an on-line reader

Subscribe in an RSS feed reader

The details will vary, but basically these instructions will work for all blogs. In our case, clicking the link above opens this window:

On the right hand side you’ll see button icons for a number of newsreaders. We’re not playing favourites here, but if you already have a Yahoo or Google account they’re very convenient. You can click a button, log in and subscribe in seconds. Just follow the directions.

Even if you need to open an account, click on any button, follow the instructions and you’ll be done in minutes. If you don’t like your first choice you can always try again.

Here’s the Google Reader as an example. Although you can reformat it in various ways, you’d have to describe it as “effective but not pretty”. And being Google it comes with ads!

How to subscribe to our blog using your browser

Newsreaders are less important nowadays because your web browser can do the job. However...

• Browsers are not all created equal, and

• How browsers handle RSS is changing fast.

I might as well say I think Safari (for Mac and Windows) is the best of the current bunch for RSS feeds. That’s because it behaves like a newsreader – in other words it will deliver you a web page like mine – only better because you chose the content!

You can start the day by grabbing a cup of coffee and checking out what’s happening in the world (if you like, everything from Al Jazeera to your sister’s posts from the South Pacific; and our blog of course…)

What I’ve done is set my news feed as my Safari Home Page and that’s exactly how I start my on-line day.

Although it’s a Macintosh program, Safari, like iTunes and QuickTime, is available for Windows, although at the time of writing many Windows users think it’s buggy. But for myself, I’d rather go for another online reader than sacrifice my Home Page experience.

Read below for detailed information about particular browsers.
 

Subscribing to RSS feeds with Safari

Start with the page you want to subscribe to on screen, then click on the RSS button in the address bar. If there’s no RSS icon, there’s no feed to subscribe to.

After you click “RSS” the feed will be re-displayed in RSS format (you can toggle back and forth between the two views).

While in RSS format, click Add Bookmark using the button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. This brings up a dialogue box asking you to name the bookmark and choose where to save it.

I recommend saving all your feeds in the News folder (make sure it’s in the Bookmarks bar). Click on the News folder and you’ll see a listing “View All RSS Articles”. Click on it, drag the link to the Bookmark Bar and – voila! – that’s what I set as my Home Page.

Alternatively you can simply drag the feed URL to the News folder (it’s quicker too).

If these instructions don’t work (maybe you may have a different version of Safari) do a search on RSS in Safari Help. And by the way, you can choose another newsreader in Safari Preferences if you really want to.

Leopard works differently

The previous outline was written for OSX Tiger. Leopard works differently, in that you can also subscribe to an RSS feed in Mail and have new feeds show up in your inbox, or mail folders.

Subscribing to RSS feeds with Firefox

You could try Firefox Help, but it’s not very helpful about RSS.

Like Safari (and Internet Explorer too) you can choose a different newsreader, but these instructions assume that you’ll use Firefox itself as the reader. You might need to go to Preferences and select “Live Bookmarks”.

Click on the RSS icon in the address bar, and it will invite you to subscribe.

Firefox will ask you to choose a place to store the “live bookmark”. I’ve created a new folder called “Newsfeeds” and put it in the Bookmarks Toolbar folder, so that it will show up at the top of every window (not quite a home page, but close).

Now I can click on Newsfeeds, select the blog I want (The Junction) and go straight to the post I’m interested in.

Subscribing to RSS feeds with Internet Explorer

Microsoft was late on board with RSS. RSS implementation was not offered by Internet Explorer 6 or earlier, so you’ll need to download IE 7 or use a newsreader.

We’re told that handling of RSS is changing rapidly as IE7 evolves, so the best advice is to go to IE Help to see how your version works. The Microsoft website also has good support articles.

The following instructions work with the version I downloaded today (February 2008) for XP.

Click on the RSS icon in the window header (you may see these icons instead:       ).

You will then be invited to subscribe to the feed, as above. “Feeds” is the recommended location.

Once you’ve subscribed, you can access your feeds alongside your Favourites and History.