Hyperviews Online

An RSS reader renders an XML file posted on the web by a content owner. By posting this XML file, the content owner syndicates the content via RSS, Really Simple Syndication.

This article presents simple steps to download and set up an RSS reader. Katherine Hinchey, a Senior Member in the Online SIG, provided much of the information here.

These instructions refer to SharpReader. There are many others.

1. Look over the notes on the SharpReader site.
2. Download SharpReader.
3. Run the setup program to install SharpReader. If a prompt appears to download the .NET framework, follow the link and complete the installation.
4. Open SharpReader.
5. Subscribe to an RSS feed. If the RSS XML field is auto-detectable, the following steps are not necessary, except for clicking Subscribe. As an example, to subscribe to the STC RSS feed:
   • Go to http://www.stc.org.
   • Find the orange icon with the word XML on it. Do not click it.
   • Resize the Internet browser window so that you can see the SharpReader window too.
   • Drag the orange XML icon and drop it in the left pane of SharpReader (the pane for the Subscribed Feeds). Click Subscribe.
6. The headlines in STC’s RSS feed appear in the pane at the top. Select the headline to see the brief announcement on the STC web page that displays the RSS feed.
7. Double click the headline to see that item on the STC site.
8. Double click the STC Subscribed Feed if you wish to go to the STC website.
9. If you do not want to be notified each time STC adds a new item to the RSS feed, select the STC Subscribed Feed. From the Tools menu, select Feed Properties. Click the AlertNewsItems field and select No.

From now on, the RSS reader will update the headlines from STC automatically. You do not have to visit the STC RSS feed to see the headlines. By default SharpReader updates the headlines every hour.

If you subscribe to the RSS feed for the STC Forum, by default SharpReader will update the list of topics most recently posted every hour. You do not have to visit the STC Forum to see the new posts.

If you subscribe to the RSS feed for a search on a job website, you will not have to go back to the job page and do the search again. The RSS reader will do the search for you. By default SharpReader will do the search every hour.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 23rd, 2006 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.