Step 2. The FeedDemon User Interface
Once installed, a wizard walks you through the configuring process, and also introduces you to various aspects of the application.
There are three panes. The first, on the extreme left, is the ‘Channel’ bar; the middle one shows news items, and the right-most pane is a browser that allows you to read news from the selected Web site.
The FeedDemon User Interface
Step 3. Default Channel Groups
The wizard has some pre-configured channel groups so you can start using the application straight out of the box. A channel group is a collection of similar news channels, for instance, in the technology channel group, you can add news channels from Anandtech, Toms- hardware, CNET, and other Web sites-just check the channel groups you would like to subscribe to.
The default channel groups
You can also go one step forward and select specific channels in the channel group. To do so, click on the ‘ ‘ sign and expand the list, and then select channels that suit your taste.
Step 4. Subscribing To A New Channel
At times, you might feel like subscribing to a particular blog or a specific Web site that offers RSS feeds but is not included in the default channel list. You will need to manually add it to the channel bar.
For adding a new channel, go to File > New > New Channel. The New Channel dialog box will open, if you have the URL of the blog or the Web site (often offered by Web sites and blogs) select the first option and click ‘Next’.
Subscribing to a new channel
The second step in the process
Paste the URL in the box and select the checkbox that says ‘Auto-discover and verify feeds’, then click ‘Next’. After entering the URL, select a name for the channel, and select the channel group for the same, so that your feeds are properly organised.
Step 5. Reading A News Item
The news item pane will list recent news snippets from a particular channel with a short lead. Just double-click the snippet in the news items pane, and the adjacent browser will take you directly to that particular Web page.
To read the next snippet, simply repeat the process. The browser supports tabbed browsing, so you can open multiple windows if you like.
Step 6. Customising The Look And Feel
You can customise the look and feel of the interface from the ‘Options’ page. Go to ‘Tools’ and select ‘Options’ to open the configuration page, or hit [F8] to do the same.
Customising FeedDemon
From this page, you can change the look and feel of the interface, as well as settings related to your connection and also to other features.
Step 7. Advanced Features
FeedDemon also includes a filtering system that allows filtering of inbound news based on keywords. These news snippets are delivered to the ‘Watches’ pane.
To add keywords, go to File > New, and select ‘New Watch’. A new watch dialog box will open. Add a tile to the watch, then key in the keywords and click ‘Finish’. Once done, it will segregate news items with the keywords separately in the watches pane.