RSS Instructions
RSS feeds bring timely information straight to your desktop. You can monitor news, blogs, job listings, personals, and classifieds from various Web sites. Information is pushed directly to you from selected Web sites. Instead of having to go to the FICPA, New York Times, Washington Post, and all your favorite blogs, you just open up your RSS Reader.
More and more Web sites offer RSS feeds, which can easily be identify by a small orange button on your favorite Web pages that says RSS or XML. When you click one of these buttons, you will most likely get a page full of code in your browser. This is normal. To properly read this code, you need an RSS reader into which you will add the URL of the page with the code.
Read on to learn how to start using RSS and click here to view a short video by CNET.com about RSS.
STARTING YOUR RSS FEEDS
STEP 1: Get A RSS Reader
There are two main types of RSS readers, Standalone readers and Plugins.
Standalone readers are programs that process RSS feeds for you. The advantage of a standalone is that it is a new application that you can populate with your favorite feeds. The disadvantage: it's one more application to have open on your desktop.
Plug-in readers work within existing programs such as Microsoft Outlook or Internet Explorer. The advantage of plug-in readers is that you likely have Outlook or IE open already, so the reader becomes a new component of that application. The disadvantage is that if you have a lot of e-mail folders or bookmarks already established, you may not want to overload your application with daily feeds of new information.
The following are two easy to use standalone readers and best of all they are FREE!
If you 'd like more options, here are some reviews of other readers including some Plug-In readers.
STEP 2: Add New Feeds to Your Reader
Once you install a RSS reader you add RSS feeds you are interested in, like the ones from the FICPA. Most RSS readers come preloaded with numerous channels, but the beauty of RSS is that you can tell the reader exactly what you are interested in reading about.
To Add a Feed for the FICPA
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Go to the FICPA RSS Feeds page and click on one of the orange RSS buttons next to the topic you're interested in.
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Right-click or use CTRL+C to copy the URL from the address bar of your browser, which should show a page with the RSS feeds or XML code.
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Go back to your newsreader, choose the category where you want the new subscription to live (Business, Entertainment, the New York Times), and select "Add" or "New" feed from the "File" menu. In most cases, the URL you copied should automatically be pasted into the URL field in the New Feed wizard. If not, you can cut and paste the URL yourself.
Click here for a listing of the various FICPA RSS feeds and some other useful RSS feeds to get you started.
That's it! As soon as you add your new feed(s), the latest articles from each source will be automatically downloaded to your reader.
Most readers will update these feeds hourly, but you can customize these setting to update them more or less frequently. There are 1000's of sites covering a wide range of topics that provide RSS feeds, so look out for the orange RSS buttons.
STEP 3: Manage Your Feeds
It can become difficult to find specific information after you have gathered many articles from the various feeds you are subscribed to. To solve this, newsreaders include useful filters and search tools for finding articles.
A Filter or Search tool will show only articles that contain a keyword, date, or some other criteria you specify. To use it, simply type in the keyword you are searching for directly into the Filter/Search bar.
For assistance with FICPA RSS feed, contact Webmaster@ficpa.org.
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