FeedDemon – Clippings

Just to finish out the series and follow the theme, today I took a look at the Clippings function within FeedDemon. This is very similar to that found in the NewsGator Online version (for more info check out an earlier post, NewsGator Online – Review (Cont’d) from Feb 23rd, 2009). Between the flagging options and the Clippings function, FeedDemon makes it easy for you to keep or identify articles that you want to read later, re-read at another time or save for something or time in the future.

The Clippings function is very easy to use and follows the same logic as the Subscriptions and the Watches. As with these other tools there are multiple ways to add a new clipping folder. You can go through the File Menu and then select the sideways arrow pointing right next to Subscribe. Then select New Clippings Folder from the list. For the second option you will need to have the Subscribe button as activated as a part of the toolbar over the folder tree (or subscriptions) section. Then simply select the down arrow next to Subscribe and New Clippings folder from the list. Another way is to right click on the Clippings main folder or any existing clippings folder and select New Clippings Folder from the list. The last way is when you are looking at a post. You will notice in the list of icons that allow you to manipulate the posts there is a small square looking icon with a round top (hint it looks like the icon for the clippings folders that you have already created). When you click on this icon you can tell FeedDemon where to store the post (which clippings folder) or you can create a new folder.

When you add a folder there are a couple of options that you will need to complete in order for your new folder to work the way that you want it too. The first thing you have to do is give the folder a name. Then you can select whether you want this new folder to be the default clippings folder. What this means is it will be the first option when you send a post to clippings and you will have to manually select if you want the post to go somewhere else. The next option is to have this folder synchronize with NewsGator Online. This allows you to have your clippings available anywhere that you have internet access. The last option is to setup this new clippings folder to share your posts as an RSS feed. I will review in more detail in the next post. The one thing that I have had trouble with is getting my folders on the Dell to sink with the online version and then re-sync with FeedDemon on the Gateway. I was not sure if it is something I had configured incorrectly or something with the technology. Turns out if you make a change, like delete a folder, in one FeedDemon and then sync it with NewsGator Online it will sync up fine. However if you then go to another computer after the sync the folders you deleted in the other FeedDemon will still appear but the sync option in the properties screen will now be deactivated. So Changes you make in one FeedDemon have to be duplicated in any other instance of FeedDemon that you use.

So adding posts to your folders is pretty easy too. As I said earlier you can select the clippings icon on the post and select the clippings folder you want to add it to. The other option is available if you have the Show News Items option activated (See the post Show News Items from June 17th 2009 for more info). You can drag items from this list to the folder that you want to save them in and a copy will be saved in the clippings folder. It works a lot like email the only difference is that the original post stays within the feed folder as well and a copy is placed in your clippings folder.

Next time we will look at the RSS function from the clippings folders.