Really Simple Syndication
How to use it, why you would want to
Before I talk about what it is, the most important question for most of you is:
Q: How will RSS benefit me?
Why use RSS? As your Webmaster, I hear all the time reasons why people don't check important content on the website, such as Announcements and Calendar items. The most frequent reasons I get are 1) I don't think of looking on the website, 2) it seems like too much trouble to have to go to the website, and 3) how do I know to go to the website to see if there are updates without actually going to the website every day to check? Okay, I hear you. Well, the answer is: RSS Feeds.
If you subscribe to an RSS feed with your email program, you will then automatically get headings and the first few lines of everything from that area of the site whenever something new is added. These show up in your email RSS folder (much like emails show up in your Inbox). You don't have to do anything (not even visit the website) to get this information.
Here's what it looks like in Outlook:
- Click on the name of the RSS feed folder to see the articles it contains.
- Click on the name of the article to get a preview in the panel on the right.
- If you want to read the whole article on the website, click on the grey area that has the text "Click here to view the full article..."
Q: Okay, so what is RSS?
RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") is a way to automatically download content from the Internet onto your computer. Many people use their email program to do this. Your Internet Browser (Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.) has the capacity to do this, too. If you have Windows 7 you have seen the gadget that does RSS; Macs have a widget that does RSS. Cell phones, too.
Q: How do I use RSS?
- First open the main topic for which you want a feed (such as Announcements, or RE Programs and News).
- Scroll down to the bottom of the item and click on the
link. - To add a link to the Calendar, you can click on the "Subscribe to RSS Feed" under the "What's Happening" list in the right sidebar (see picture). Or, go to the Calendar page and subscribe with the link at the bottom of the page.
- If you see a browser screen asking you what program you want to use, choose Outlook (if you have it) or your browser. (The rest of this tutorial is for Outlook.)
- Check "Always use xxx" if you want to skip this step in the future and click Suscribe Now.
- In Outlook, click Yes when prompted.
- Right-click on the feed name and choose Rename (give it a shorter name, like "Announcements", as shown).
- After you subscribe to an RSS Feed, headlines will appear in your RSS folders. RSS items appear similar to mail messages. (See first part of article!)
Q: What should I subscribe to?
Suggested areas of the website to subscribe to: the Calendar feed (it has its own RSS button, on the right side under the "What's Happening" list), the RE News, the Announcements, Sunday Services, Webmaster Blog (okay, that's self-promotion, sorry).
Q: How can I learn more about RSS?
More information about RSS, and about how you can get a stand-alone reader, can be found here.
If you are interested in this article but still have questions, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
~Karin
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