If you have Windows XP or Windows 2003 and haven't already upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 then I suggest you do so (go ahead I'll wait). You can get it through Windows Update or you can just go to the
Internet Explorer site. If you're unsure if you have IE7, click on that link in the last sentence and if the upper right corner of the page says "you are using Internet Explorer 7", then have it.
How to use RSS in IE7:
You should read both steps completely before begin.
- Click on the RSS/Feed icon
, it's between the Home and Print icons.
- Click on the link that says 'subscribe' or look for this icon
. This page is the standard look for a 'Feed' in IE7.
At this point you are subscribed to my website's RSS feed. IE7 will now automatically check my site at specified intervals to get any new content. To view the content at a later time and/or see if anything is new click on the Favorites button
and select the Feeds tab. You will see a list of all RSS feeds you are subscribed to. Feeds with new items will be in bold. You can hover over any of them to see when they were last checked and how many new items there are.
Why:
If you don't see the point in using Feeds then let me give you some reasons.
- You can see the content you want in one place and not have to navigate the normal website. Most sites have differing and complex layouts that only show the top 5 or 10 newest entries and make you click around to see more stories.
- You'll be able, in one glance, to see the status of all feeds you're subscribed to and not have to browse site to site to see who has new content.
- You can read the entries when your machine is not connected to the internet, good for the laptop users.
- It doesn't use an email address so you don't have the problem of spam, viruses, and phishing that you might have with an email newsletter.
- And finally, why not? It only takes a few seconds to add or remove a feed from you list.
Extra tips:
- If you have never clicked on the Feed button for a particular site it'll look like this
to denote a new feed.
- The feed button will be grey and disabled if IE7 does not detect a feed. A grey icon doesn't mean the page doesn't have a feed, but you will have to find it manually. You'd want to look for the terms "Feed", "RSS", or "XML". If you get to the right page IE then recognizes it you'll see the same type of page as when you subscribed to my Feed.
- You can adjust how frequently IE will check for new feed content by right clicking any entry in the Favorites section and picking properties.
- You may notice some RSS feeds only give the article headline and not the full content. There is nothing you can do about this, it's just how the website set it up.
