If you don't already use a feed reader and want to get started using RSS feeds to read your favorite blogs and news sites, Bloglines is a great service. The main advantages are that it is easy to set up, easy to use, and free. Another advantage for those of you with multiple computers is that since you access it using a browser, you don't have to worry about synchronizing our feeds between computers. In this tutorial we'll walk through using Bloglines.
Step 1: Create an Account
First, you need to create a Bloglines account. To do that, go to the registration page and follow the instructions. Go ahead, we'll wait.
Step 2: Add Feeds
Bloglines gives you a few ways to add feeds. First, you can use the Add link under the My Feeds tab when you are logged in to Bloglines:
Enter the URL of either the blog or the RSS feed. Bloglines is usually able to autodiscover the RSS feeds on a blog or news site so entering the URL is typically all that is needed.
Once you click the Subscribe button, you will be presented with a list of the RSS feeds that were found (or the RSS feed you entered):
In the example above, we see the two feeds for the Blogzerk Blog. One of these is the standard Blogware RSS and the other is the FeedBurner RSS feed we have added to our blog. Depending on the blog, you may see multiple feeds for the different syndication formats (RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom) and also for articles, categories, or comments. Select the checkbox next to the feed you want to add.
You can now tell Bloglines what settings to use for this feed. By default, it will show up in the root of your Feeds folder. You can create a new Folder for this feed by selecting New Folder... in the Folder dropdown or an existing folder if you already have one. This allows you to organize your feeds by topic. The defaults for Updated Items and Display Preferences are probably OK but feel free to change them if needed.
The Bloglines Notifier is software you can use on your computer and/or browser to be notified when your feeds are updated. If you use this, you can choose whether this feed is monitored by the Notifier. If you don't use this, setting it will not affect anything.
Bloglines offers a mobile version of the web site for use on handheld devices. You can specify if you want this feed to be displayed in the mobile version or not. This allows you to limit your mobile version to a subset of your entire feed list for quick access.
You can set the Access for this feed to determine if it should show up in your blogroll. See the Blogroll Help for more information.
If you want to add any notes to this feed, you can enter them in the Notes section.
Once you have configured your feed, use the Subscribe button to save it. The feed will now show up in your My Feeds tab.
Another option for subscribing to a feed is to use one of the bookmarklets in your browser. Once you have followed the instructions to add the button to your browser, you can click on it on any blog or news page that publishes an RSS feed and it will take you directly to the subscription options for the feed. If you are not already logged in to Bloglines, it will prompt you for login first.
The final method of subscribing to a blog is to use the Sub With Bloglines button on the blog if provided. The Blogzerk Blog provides one (along with other services) at the top right of the page.
Step 3: Reading Feeds
Once you have added feeds to Bloglines, you are ready to read them. Once you log in, you will be taken to your My Feeds tab. This will show you your feed folders (if you created them) and the feeds in them. Folders and feeds with unread items will be bolded and the number of unread items will be show in parentheses next to the folder or feed.
To expand a folder, click the plus sign icon to the left of it. To view the items for a feed, click the title of the feed. The right pane will show the items (articles). If you want to save an item for future viewing, you can click the Keep New checkbox. This will show that item in the feed until you uncheck it. Also, this will add a new item count next to the feed or folder in parentheses in light gray next to the unread count. NOTE: Clicking on a folder name will show all feed items for all feeds in that folder, organized by feed.
This is just a brief overview of reading your feeds. Feel free to browse around and use the Help feature for more information.
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