In the introductory blog entry about RSS titled “What Is RSS?,” I made a promise at the end of the post. As stated, I’m now going to show you how to setup your very own RSS Reader! This is a piece of software which allows you stay up to date with websites that update their pages on a frequent basis. An RSS reader is also known as an RSS aggregator. So now you know. Are we ready? Ok, lets gets started

1. Download BlogBridge
Click here to download BlogBridge. Folow the instructions pertaining to the operating system controlling your computer. The three options are for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. Save the installation file to your desktop.

2. Install BlogBridge
After the download completes, simply run the installation file which should be located on your desktop. Click the next button through the installation wizard until the installation is complete.

3. Setup BlogBridge
During your first use of BlogBridge you must allow the software to configure itself, and you must also accept the terms of agreement. Accept the terms of agreement, and click the finish button. Please note that you do NOT have to sign up for anything in order to use BlogBridge as a basic RSS Reader. I repeat, after you have accepted the agreement simply click the finish button and you are done.

4. Run BlogBridge
When you run the BlogBridge program, it will immediately show a welcome tip. You can disable these tips by unchecking the box that says “Show tips on startup.” Once you have closed the welcome tip, you are now ready to subscribe to an RSS Feed.

5. Subscribe To An RSS Feed
Subscribing to an RSS Feed is easy! In this example, we will subscribe to this blogs RSS feed - Technology For Non Techies. Click the button that says “Subscribe To RSS Feed…”

A dialog box will appear titled “Subscribe to Feed.” This is where you enter the URL for the RSS Feed that you would like to subscribe to. Our RSS feed at Technology For Non Techies is “http://www.pcauthority.ca/blog/feed”. Enter this URL (do not include the quotations) into the “Address (URL)” text box and click the OK button.

TIP: If you do not know the URL for the RSS feed of a particular website, but you suspect it exists… try entering the regular website URL into the “Address (URL)” text box - BlogReader may be able to find the RSS feed for you!

What Are Guides?
Guides are simply a collection of related RSS Feeds. Its just a convenient way to group or categorize your RSS Feed subscriptions. For example, you could create a guide to contain all of your “computer” related RSS Feeds. And, you could create another guide for your “cooking” related RSS Feeds. Thirdly, you could create a guide for you “news” related RSS Feeds. And so on, and so on, etc.

You are now in a position to read my latest blog posts without actually having to visit my website. Are you thinking the following:

“That doesn’t save me any time! Besides, I would just rather visit the website.”

When you consider that you can check many different websites for updated content all at once, you will soon realize how handy RSS Feeds can be! If you are just using it for my website, well ya I agree; it is a waste of energy. However, subscribe to a variety of your “favourite” websites and you can quickly and easily check them all for updates with the click of your mouse! Thanks for tuning in

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm and is filed under RSS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.