RSSOwl Tutorial
Author: Benjamin Pasero, Berlin
Description: RSSOwl is a RSS / RDF / Atom Newsreader written in Java using SWT as fast graphic library. Features: read RSS / RDF / Atom newsfeeds in a comfortable tabfolder, save newsfeeds in categorys, export to PDF / HTML / OPML, view news in internal browser. Languages: en, de, fr, es, gl, it, dk, nl and a lot more.
Keywords: RSS, RDF, RSSOwl, Java, SWT, rss-reader, feed-reader, rssfeed, RSS-Feed, feedreader, newsfeed, feed, reader, News, newsreader, PDF, OPML, HTML, export, import, proxy, base64, authentification, https, Linux, Mac, Windows, aggregator, aggregate, search, fulltext-search, fulltext, tray, icon, systemtray, owl, internal browser, browser, Rich, site, summary, syndication, Really, simple, german, english, spanish, french, galician, danish, italian, dublin, core, 0.91, 0.92, 1.0, 2.0, Outline, Processor, Markup, Language, print, Eule

ABOUT RSSOwl | QUICK START | ELEMENTS | HOW-TO'S | TIPS AND TRICKS | RESOURCES

## RSSOwl Elements: Dialogs

Also see: Menus | Popup menus | Main screen

#### Add a New Favorite

Lets you add a newsfeed to the Favorites.

- URL/Path: Enter the URL or local path to the RSS/RDF/Atom file you want to incorporate into your Favorites.

- Title: Type a name for the newsfeed, or click the Grab Title button to read the title from the file.

- Category: Shows the Category the new Favorite will be added into. Use "Change..." to select another Category or to quickly create a new one.

- Update Automatically: Lets you set an interval for updating the current newsfeed from the newsfeed source. Default is "none." For more on reloading and updating content, see "How to keep content current."

- Misc.: Choose here to let RSSOwl open the favorite on startup automatically or to Use the Proxy if set in Preferences.

Getting there: File|New>Favorite on the main menu, or right-click any item in RSS Favorites tree and choose New>Favorite.

#### Add a New Category/Subcategory

Lets you add a Category to categorize your Favorites.

- Title: Type a name for the new category.

Getting there: File|New>Category (or Sub-Category) on the main menu, or right-click any item in RSS Favorites and choose New>Category (or Sub-Category).

#### Add a New Synchronized Blogroll

Lets you add a Blogroll that contains a list of newsfeeds.

- URL/Pfad: Enter the URL or local path to the Blogroll file you want to import Newsfeeds from.

- Title: Type a name for the new Blogroll.

Getting there: Import|Synchronized Blogroll on the main menu, or right-click any item in RSS Favorites and choose Import|Synchronized Blogroll.

#### Customize ToolBar

Lets you configure the Items of the ToolBar.

- List of Items: Items that are checked will show inside the Toolbar. Control the order of items by moving them up and down. Drag and drop is supported as well for changing the order.

- Separator: Add Separators to the list of items to divide groups of items.

- Show: Select between "Icons and Text", "Icons" or "Text".

- Use small Icons: Decide wether to use big or small Icons for the Toolbar.

Getting there: View|Customize Toolbar on the main menu, or right-click on the Toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar.

#### Edit Category

Lets you modify the name of a category.

- Title: Enter a new name into this edit box to change the currently selected Category name.

Getting there: Right-click a category (folder) from the Favorites tree to open the popup menu, then choose Properties.

#### Edit Favorite

Lets you modify the specifications of any newsfeed in the Favorites tree.

- URL/Path: If the URL or path to the newsfeed has changed, you can enter the new location here.

- Title: Type a name for the newsfeed, or click the Grab Title button to read the title from the source file.

- Category: Category dialog lets you choose a position for the newsfeed in your Favorites tree. Use "Change..." to select another Category or to quickly create a new one.

- Auto Reload: Lets you set an interval for updating the current newsfeed from the newsfeed source. Default is "none." For more on reloading and updating content, see "How to keep content current."

- Misc.: Choose here to let RSSOwl open the favorite on startup automatically or to Use the Proxy if set in Preferences.

Getting there: Right-click a newsfeed from the Favorites tree to open the popup menu, then choose Properties.

#### Search

Lets you run a full-text search of the titles and descriptions in any newsfeed, category or Blogroll.

- Search for: Enter the word, phrase, or expression you want to find. You can use comparison operators AND, OR, and NOT to help narrow your search.

- Search in: Improve your search by selecting one of the available search-scopes. Some of the available scopes are "Headline", "Description" and "Enclosure". The search will only return results that match in the selected scope.

- Options: Check "Entire word only" to search for the entire phrase, as you entered it. Searches are case-insensitive unless you check "Regard case-sensitivity". The third option, "Use regular expression," allows you to create even more precise searches. (If you've never used regular expressions before and you want to try them in your searches, you can find a number of excellent articles on the Web to give you some direction.)

Getting there: Right-click a newsfeed, category or Blogroll from the Favorites tree to open the popup menu, then choose Search. Alternatively press Ctrl+F to search in the current displayed newsfeed.

#### Search for Newsfeeds

Lets you search the Web for RSS/RDF/Atom newsfeeds.

- Search term: Enter any word or phrase.

- Thorough search [checkbox]: If checked, RSSOwl will try to parse any link as RSS feed. Intensive searches are more time-consuming, but will result in more hits.

- Preferred language: Check this box if you want to restrict the search to the language you have set in preferences.

- Search results table: As the search progresses, newsfeeds containing your search terms appear in this table. You can drag items from there into the Favorites Tree. Double-Click on an item to display it.

- Import... [button]: Click this button to import all newsfeeds that where found into a category. Exclude newsfeeds by un-checking their checkbox.

- Export to OPML [button]: When the search concludes (or is stopped), you can save the results to an OPML file, then import the file into any position in your RSS Favorites tree.

- Clear results [button]: Clears the search results table.

Getting there: Ctrl+G or Tools|Search for Newsfeeds on the main menu.

#### Discover Newsfeeds on website

Lets you search a website or online file for RSS/RDF/Atom newsfeeds.

- URL: Enter the URL to the website or a file that contains links to newsfeeds (like an OPML file).

- Search results table: As the search progresses, newsfeeds being found appear in this table. You can drag items from there into the Favorites Tree. Double-Click on an item to display it.

- Import... [button]: Click this button to import all newsfeeds that where found into a category. Exclude newsfeeds by un-checking their checkbox.

- Export to OPML [button]: When the search concludes (or is stopped), you can save the results to an OPML file, then import the file into any position in your RSS Favorites tree.

- Clear results [button]: Clears the search results table.

Getting there: Tools|Discover Newsfeeds on website on the main menu.

#### Validate Newsfeed

Lets you validate a newsfeed against RSS 0.91, 0.92 or 2.0.

- Validate: Validate the given newsfeed.

- Type Of Newsfeed: Let RSSOwl detect the format automatically or choose RSS 0.91, RSS 0.92 or RSS 2.0.

- Override Doctype Declaration: Indicates wether RSSOwl should ignore any DTD set in the newsfeed and use its own DTDs for the newsfeed format.

Getting there:Tools|Validate Newsfeed on the main menu.

#### Preferences

This dialog lets you modify a number of global settings. In all panes, a "Restore Defaults" button lets you revert to the installed settings for the selected preference category.
Use the search-box on top of the Tree to quickly access preferences you are looking for.

Getting there: Tools|Preferences on the main menu.

#### Preferences: General

This is the root element for the settings Colors, Fonts, Hotkeys, Language, News Sorting, View and System Tray.

- Open Mode: Change the open mode in RSSOwl. Selecting Single-Click will open favorites and categories from the favorite tree with only one mouse-click instead of a double-click.

- Show Confirmation: Define wether RSSOwl should bring up the Confirmation-Dialog when deleting Favorites, Categories or Blogrolls.

- Re-Open last opened feeds on startup: Check this option if RSSOwl should automatically re-open the feeds that where open on exit.

- Automatically save newsfeeds for offline reading: When checked, RSSOwl will save all newsfeeds into an offline archive allowing to read newsfeeds while being offline

- Mark newsfeed read when closing tab: Let RSSOwl mark the feed read that was closed in the tabfolder.

- Mark all news read on minimize: Let RSSOwl mark all news read when minimizing the application window.

- Open empty news automatically in browser: Whenever a news has no description, it will open directly in the browser.

- Open news automatically in browser: Opens any news directly in the browser.

- Check for updates after startup: If checked, RSSOwl checks for program updates when it launches.

#### Preferences: General > Colors

Change the colors for Links and Search-Result-Highlight in RSSOwl

- Link Color: Lets you change the color of all Links displayed in RSSOwl.

- Search Results Color: Lets you change the color of all search-highlighted words.

#### Preferences: General > Font

Lets you modify fonts used in RSSOwl.

- Font Area: Choose an area of the program to modify. Descriptions of what text is affected appears next to the list.

- Selected Font: Choose between the System Font for the selected area, or click the Change Font button to open a font specification dialog. Your current specification is noted in the panel.

- Text Encoding: The default UTF-8 encoding works for most character sets, but you can select any other encoding from this dropdown list. This does not affect the encoding for the newsfeeds. The encoding is used whenever RSSOwl saves documents to your local harddisk.

#### Preferences: General > Hotkeys

Lets you modify hotkey combinations for various program actions.
Note: This Help file contains references to default hotkey sequences; if you change the sequences, these references no longer apply.

- Command Category/Name: Choose a top-level menu name and the menu item name.

- Key Sequence: Enter any unused hotkey by placing your cursor in this field, pressing a key sequence, then clicking the Assign button. The change is effective immediately upon existing the Preferences dialog.

#### Preferences: General > Language

Lets you change the language used in RSSOwl headings, labels, menu items, and dialog text. The setting does not affect newsfeed titles or content.

#### Preferences: General > News Sorting

Lets you change the default sort order that is used for newsfeeds. The top item from the list is the item that is used to sort the newsfeed at first. If that item is not available in the feed, RSSOwl continous with the second item from the list and so on. Another option allows to disable automatic sorting. News will then be displayed as devlivered in the XML.

#### Preferences: General > View

Change view related settings in RSSOwl

- Window Layout: Change the window layout in RSSOwl. Choose between a two-column and a three-column layout.

- Tab Layout: Change the tab layout in RSSOwl. Choose between traditional tabs and curved ones. You may also select wether RSSOwl should use tabs to display content in the tabfolder. Another option indicates wether new tabs should automatically get focus on opening. Define here wether Tabs should show the "Close" Button.

- View newstext in browser: When checked, the newstext of a newsfeed is displayed using the internal browser, allowing to view newsfeeds that use HTML.

- Show newsfeed info: Switches display of channel info details about the current newsfeed when feeds are loaded into the Newsheader pane. Channel info, which appears between the Newsheader tabs and the article list, can be expanded or contracted by clicking the arrow icon next to the channel title.

- Display errors in new tab of the tabfolder: Set to let RSSOwl show any errors, for example when loading a newsfeed with a malformed URL, as tab in the tabfolder.

#### Preferences: General > View > System Tray

Change system tray related settings in RSSOwl
Note: System-Tray is not yet supported on Mac and Solaris.

- System Tray: Chose wether to use system tray functionality for RSSOwl. When activated, RSSOwl will move to system tray when minimized. Other options allow to move RSSOwl to system tray on startup and / or exit.

- News Popup: Chose wether to show the news popup when RSSOwl is minimized to system tray. The news popup will show whenever new news have been downloaded indicating that unread news are available.

#### Preferences: AmphetaRate

Create a new AmphetaRate User to rate newsfeeds and receive personalized recommendations

Existing User: Perform changes on your username and password.
Note: If you are an existing user with an User ID, you will only see your ID. Please create a new account providing your ID to upgrade your account.

Create User: Register a new user with pressing the "Create Account" button

- Username : Enter your desired username

- Password : Enter your desired password

- User ID (optional) : If you are an existing user, enter your user id to keep your ratings

#### Preferences: Blogger

Select an external blogger to use with RSSOwl.

- Select external blogger: Enter a path or click Search to locate the executable file for a blogger.

- Arguments: Lets you modify the arguments to the executable and offers a number of variables for pulling information from the referenced news item.

#### Preferences: Browser

Use this pane to enable or disable use of an external browser for display of full article content called from RSSOwl. If you choose to use an external browser, RSSOwl uses your default system Web browser, unless you specify otherwise.

- Select external browser: If you don't want to use your default system Web browser as external Browser, enter a path or click Search to locate the executable file for an alternate browser. If RSSOwl cannot locate the specified browser your default system browser is used.

- Arguments: Lets you modify the arguments to the executable. Use [URL] as wildcard for the URL to load in the browser

- Block Popups: Check this option to block popups. Default: checked.

- Always open internal browser in a new tab: Check this option if you are using the internal browser and you want the Newsheader to use separate instances of the browser whenever you load full article content. To use a single instance of the internal browser each time you load article content, clear this checkbox. Default: checked.

- Use External Browser: Check this option to load full article content into your default external browser (or another browser you have specified in "Select external browser"). Default: unchecked.

Please note that the internal browser is currently not supported on Solaris.

#### Preferences: Favorites

These settings allow to define the initial properties a new favorite should have.

- Auto Reload: Define the initial auto reload interval of any new favorite. Its also possible to check that a favorite shall reload on startup.

- Misc.: Define to open a new favorite on startup. Usage of Proxy may be defined in here too.

#### Preferences: Format NewsTip Mail

Lets you specify how your email is formatted when you use RSSOwl's "Mail News Tip" feature.

- Subject: Lets you modify the email subject line and offers a number of variables for pulling information from the referenced news item in the context menu.

- Body: Lets you add or modify text for the messages, and offers a number of variables for pulling information from the referenced news item in the context menu.

- HTML Format Mail: If checked, the email is sent in HTML format. If unchecked, the mail is sent as plain text. (May not apply to all email applications.) Default: checked.

#### Preferences: Connection

If needed, specify a proxy server to access data on the site. If you require such access, enter your specifications here.

- Use Proxy (Host/Port): Check this box if you require a proxy server for a site targeted by any of your RSS Favorite newsfeeds; enter the proxy server address in the Proxy Host field, and the required port number in the Proxy Port field.

- Proxy requires authentication (with Username/Password): If the specified proxy server is password-protected, check this box and enter a user name, password and domain if necessary.

- Use proxy for all favorites: If checked, all newsfeeds will by default use the specified proxy server. You can then switch the proxy requirement off for a selected newsfeed, category, Blogroll, or aggregated category by right-clicking an item in the Favorites folder, choosing Properties from the popup menu, and deselecting "Proxy". If "Use proxy for all favorites" is unchecked, use of the specified proxy server will only apply to items on which the item's Preferences>Proxy popup item is checked.

- Maximum number of connections: Define the number of connections that may run at the same time. Users with a slow connection should reduce this value.

- Connection timeout in seconds: Define a connection timeout. If a Newsfeed could not be loaded during this time, the connection is aborted.

(c) 2003-2005 RSSOwl Development Team