FeedDemon – Tools Menu (Cleanup Wizard)

Today we are going to look at the next item in the tools menu list which is the Cleanup Wizard. This is an easy way for you to manage the posts that are in your FeedDemon Subscriptions, Watches and Clippings.

When you select the Cleanup Wizard from the list a new window launches. This window is designed to help the Cleanup Wizard to understand exactly what you want to cleanup. Much like the Cleanup Wizard in the NewsGator Inbox (that we discussed in an earlier post), the FeedDemon Cleanup Wizard gives you options. You can either cleanup just the subscription folders, just the watches or just the clippings. It will also allow you to cleanup all of the folders, watches or clippings at one time if you prefer.

When you click Next, there are more options to ensure that the Cleanup Wizard cleans just what you want it too. Since this is to cleanup old posts the wizard allows you to select how many days old you want it to start with. The default is 60 days old. I typically do not go back an read very many articles or posts that are older then a couple of weeks, so I generally will set this to 20 or 30 days. The next option allows you to identify ho may of the most recent posts you would like to keep, the default is 200 and I find that this is usually sufficient. The next two options tell the wizard to skip over the unread items and the flagged items when doing the cleanup. If you want the wizard to clean these up too, simply uncheck the boxes next to each sentence.

At this point the wizard will have enough information in order to clean up your FeedDemon folders and will ask you to simply confirm that you are ready by clicking Finish. Then the Cleanup Wizard will run, it will take anywhere from a few seconds to just under a minute depending on the options you chose, how many posts you have and how long it has been since the last time you ran the cleanup wizard. When it is finished it will tell you how many posts it cleaned up. When you select OK, you will be back in FeedDemon in you your regular view. One thing to note, if you do not have the Cleanup Wizard cleanup the unread items, or your flagged items, you will not notice much difference after running the Cleanup Wizard because the unread items will be the same as before.

Next time we will get into the Panic Button!