NetNewsWire

Follow feeds anywhere with NetNewsWire
Mac Tip #323, 30 January 2008

One very interesting feature of NetNewsWire is that you can follow and read RSS feeds from any computer. For me that means that it doesn’t matter which of my Macs I’m working on, or even if I want to check feeds on my iPod touch. The list of items I haven’t read yet is always up-to-date.

The reason is that NetNewsWire includes free use of the online NewsGator service.

In this Tip I show you how to set up NetNewsWire on a second machine and keep things synchronised.

Install and set up NetNewsWire

Download NetNewsWire (NNW) and install it on the second machine. Connect to the Internet, then double click the icon to open NNW. On Leopard an alert appears. Click Open to go ahead and start up NetNewsWire.

NNW starts up with some default feeds. It also opens a NewsGator Synching window, where you can enter details of an existing account, or create a new account.

To create a new account, choose a Username and password. If you already have a NewsGator account then enter your details.

Next check the box for Yes, please sync my feeds via NewsGator, and click Continue. Enter an email address if you wish, and decide whether or not to receive product news, then click the Finish button. Your NewsGator account is now set up.

NewsGator

NewsGator is a central service that is able to hold and organise the feeds you subscribe to.

You choose whether NetNewsWire on a particular computer should share information about your feeds with NewsGator. It’s possible to have some or all feeds only on particular machines.

In my case, I choose to have all feeds showing up in all places. Someone who has both a work and a home computer may choose to have only work-related feeds on their work computer and only leisure-related feeds on the computer at home, for example.

Synchronise feeds

NetNewsWire logs you in to NewsGator and puts up a window asking how you want to handle synching.

Your options are:

1. Merge subscriptions on this computer and NewsGator. Choose this if you have different RSS feeds on both this computer and NewsGator and wish to keep them all.
2. Replace subscriptions on NewsGator. Choose this if you have different RSS feeds on both this computer and NewsGator and wish to keep only the set that are on this computer. The ones on NewsGator will disappear.
3. Replace subscriptions on this computer. Choose this if you have different RSS feeds on both this computer and NewsGator and wish to keep only the set that are on NewsGator. The ones on this computer will disappear.

In my case, I already have a set of subscriptions on NewsGator and my other computers, so I choose option 3.

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Once you’ve made your choice click OK. NetNewsWire changes the list of feeds accordingly.

On my second machine the default feeds were replaced with my usual list of feeds — just the same as on my main computer. Or at least, almost.

While the actual, regular feeds were the same, they appeared in a different order. What’s more, the Smart feeds I set up as explained in the last Tip, didn’t carry across.

I can shuffle things around or set up Smart feeds as required on this second machine.

Now I can read my newsfeeds on my main machine or on the second machine, and thanks to NewsGator, everything will stay synchronised.

Edit feed settings

Log in to NewsGator to edit how feeds behave. There is good online Help available at the NewsGator website with full information.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Focus with NetNewsWire smart lists
Mac Tip #322, 23 January 2008

Would you like to easily follow any mentions of the iPod touch, or perhaps Lhasa Apso dogs, in the RSS feeds you’ve subscribed to? Or how about mentions of your favourite sports team, or a certain politician?

NetNewsWire has a very useful feature called Smart List that helps you do this.

I follow more than 200 RSS feeds on about a dozen topics, but I’m particularly interested in any mentions of iPod, Apple computers, and my name. I use Smart Lists to identify, gather and highlight posts on those topics.

When I come to read RSS feeds I call up those focused lists on the topics that specially interest me, then read other posts later, if I have time.

Set up a Smart List

The Smart Lists appear at the top of my list of feeds in Screenshot 1 (enlarged in screenshot). In the centre column you can see a list of 53 unread posts on many different topics.

To set up a Smart List go to the File menu and choose New Smart List….

Screenshot 2 shows my ‘Apple’ Smart List. I’ve set it to pull out any posts whose Title, Description or Summary contains ‘Apple’. It has found 4 out of my 53 unread posts.

Give your list a name and then choose the criteria you want to use. You can use information from the Title, Summary, Description, Link, Subject, Name and many other elements of a post.

Use the second pop-up to choose how to match: contains, does not contain, starts with, and so on.

In the empty text field enter the text you want to match.

Click OK to save your choices and dismiss the dialog box.

Simple or complex matches

I find these simple choices work well for me. Occasionally a post about exports of apples (the fruit) to Australia get mixed in with stories about Apple Computers, but that happens so seldom it’s not worth my time to set up a more complex match.

To set up something more complex, click the + sign at the right-hand end of the match row. This adds another row. Fill in the details as required and be sure to choose from ‘All’ or ‘Any’ from the pop-up that appears above the detail lines.

‘Any’ creates a widely-matching, loose OR type of match: this thing OR that thing.

‘All’ creates a closely focused AND type of match: this thing AND that thing.

In my screenshot the post must contain both ‘Apple’ in the Title, Description or Summary and Macintosh in the Description.

Refresh the feeds

Connect to the Internet, then go to the News menu and choose Refresh All Subscriptions. Posts that match your conditions will appear in the Smart Lists.

Popularity: 42% [?]