TwonSolo: FeedDemon

Today I am going to review the options available under the file menu in FeedDemon. However before I get started I wanted to provide a quick update to the Customize Reading Pane Toolbar post.

So today I changed the default browser on my Gateway from Internet Explorer to Firefox. When I went into FeedDemon after that I found that the icon for Launch in a browser showed the Firefox icon instead of the Internet Explorer icon. FeedDemon had also adopted the default settings that I have in Firefox rather then maintaining what I have in Internet explorer.

Alright let’s move on now to a run down on the File Menu. The very first option under the File menu is the Subscribe button. I will review adding subscriptions in a later post, over all this allows you to add feeds, clippings folders or watches. The next item in the menu allows you to create more folders under your Subscriptions folder in the folder tree. You will be able to name them and set the properties, such as Sync with NewsGator Online, when you setup each folder. The next option allows you to import feeds. This provides you with three options. The first will import recommended feeds from NewsGator, the second will allow you to import your feeds from an OPML file and the last will allow you to migrate your feeds from another service like Bloglines. The next option allows you to export your feeds via an OPML file so that you can import into another tool should you desire to change. I will get into Importing and Exporting feed in a future posting.

The next option from the list is the “Find New Feeds” tool. I will describe this more when I cover adding subscriptions, but basically this will allow you to enter keywords in order to find feeds. The next option is the Manage Cache. This could come in handy because it allows you to manage the main folder that FeedDemon uses on your computer. It allows you to change where the file is located, back it up, explore or scan for errors. The backup would be something to do proactively, but the other tools can help you if there is a problem with FeedDemon.

The next item in is the Prefetch option. This allows you to download links and images in your items so that they will be ready and available if you are planning to work offline. By downloading the images and links you will be able to view all of the images and visit any external link that may be available even when working in offline mode. There are settings associated with this tool as well. You can select the number of feeds to prefetch as well as the max size of each item or feed. If you want you can even set it up to automatically prefetch after every update. They warn that this can slow FeedDemon down though. Also if you select the Feeds Tab at the top of the new window that opened when you select “Prefech Items for Offline Reading….”, you will be able to reduce the number of feeds or select only certain subscriptions for Prefetching. The prefetch option is followed by the Work Offline option. This pretty much does what you expect and takes FeedDemon offline for active updates, but it will remain open so that you can still peruse your feeds and read what you have already downloaded or prefetched.

The next option in the list is “Minimize to Tray”. This will close the active window, but will not close out FeedDemon. It will put the FeedDemon icon in the lower right part of the screen in the start bar. It resembles the regular icon and may have an envelope over it if you have unread feeds within FeedDemon. It will also notify you with a bubble message after it syncs and new posts are received. To relaunch the FeedDemon window you simply double click on the icon. The last option in the list is the Exit option which will close down FeedDemon completely.