FeedDemon – Watches

We have briefly skimmed over the Watches a couple times in previous posts, but we have never really jumped in with both feet. Today we will look at the capabilities built into this function and how easy it is to use.

As is indicative of the other tools in FeedDemon there are multiple ways with which to setup a Watch. The first is to go through the File Menu. Then select the sideways arrow next to Subscribe and then select New Watch. The second way would be, if you have the Subscribe button activated on the toolbar over the Folder Tree (Subscriptions) section simply select the down arrow next to the word Subscribe on the toolbar and select New Watch. The last way is to right click on the word Watch in the Folder Tree and then select New Watch. All three of these options will bring you to the same place so it boils down to a matter of preference for how you want to start.

Once you have selected New Watch a new window will open. This is basically the configuration window. The first thing you will do is name this particular watch. The title box is a text box so it can be as long or short or complicated or simple as you want it to be. Below the Title box are two more boxes, one you can type in and one you can’t. The one you can type in is where you will enter the keywords that you want FeedDemon to search for. The second box holds the keywords and activates them. Once you enter a word in the first box the Add button to the right will activate. By clicking Add you will make this keyword part of the criteria and it will move to the lower box. If you decide that there are words that you have entered that you no longer want as a part of this Watch simply highlight them in the list and click remove. The will then disappear and be removed from the criteria.

On the right hand side you will find several options that are either activated or deactivated based on the checkmark box next to them. Just a reminder that checked is activated. The first set tells FeedDemon to search for the keywords that you defined in the item title and/or in the item description. If you want it to search in both the title and the description you will have to select both. If you only want it to search the title (or just the description) then you will have to check one and uncheck the other. Below that you will find more options. The first tells FeedDemon to match the case (so caps or non-caps) for the keywords that it finds and return only those that have the same case. The second indicates that you want FeedDemon to look for whole words and not just return any post that might have part of the word that you are looking for. The last option tells FeedDemon to show you posts that have all of the words you have listed in your criteria. If all of the words are not present in the Post description or title depending on how you setup the options above, then these posts will not be pulled into the Watch. The last item on this window allows you to set when the Watch should archive. Depending on what you are looking for it might make sense to go with the default of 300 items, however if you have a subject with a ton of web traffic you may want to limit the number even lower. You have full control over the number though as long as it is between 10 and 2500 items.

To make changes to your Watch is just as easy. Once you have it established all you have to do is right click on it in your folder tree and select Watch Properties from the list. Then you are back at the screen described above and you can make whatever changes you need to. Also when you right click on the Watch you will find that you can Mark it Read, Disable/Enable it, Re-Run it, and Delete. All are easily accomplished with a click of the mouse.

The one drawback that I see to this tool is that it only searches through the Subscriptions or Feeds that you already have. It does not return any posts from the internet or other sources. I guess we have internet search engines for that, but it would be nice if it would pull in a few posts of the net because you may find additional sources that you had not considered before.

Next time we will do a quick review of the clippings just to round out the series.