Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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Many people are using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) with aggregators to compile their feeds. Generally what this means is that when you see the small RSS symbol and click it, with an aggregator available, you subscribe to regularly downloaded information which will appear as a series of headlines. Clicking on a headline will open the main file, whether an HTML page with news, or an MP3 audio file (if it's a "podcast").

In my piece on podcasting with PowerPoint, I used a program called PodMatrix to host the MP3 files that would be aggregated using an RSS tool.

In the newer version of Outlook coming out next year, RSS will be built directly into Outlook. But what if you're working in Outlook most of the day and want to keep track of specific content on a regular basis?

NewsGator Inbox for Outlook is a solution. You can try it for free or buy it for less than $30. When you download and install the product, it will open a Wizard that works with MS Outlook.

Figure1040

The Wizard takes you through the usual steps of installation; to be properly prepared you might want to create some subfolders in your Outbook Inbox folder to accommodate the feeds.

The Wizard will ask you to designate a folder each for News and Clippings.

Figure1041

In the Inbox options panel you can confirm your settings and check that, in the case of podcasts, the default file types (mainly MP3) are enabled.

Figure1042

Within the opening Wizard you can browse through different categories and immediately subscribe to various feeds. If you were to select an entire category (like Podcasts) you would get a humongous amount of information into you Inbox, so it's probably best to pick and choose specific topics you want to begin with. (You can always add more.)

Figure1043

With the subscription active, your updated feeds appear in the Outlook folder you created. Clicking on any opens it directly in Outlook with the links you need to access the complete page of information (or listen to a podcast).

Figure1044

Now when you see the XML or RSS symbols on a web page, you're ready to place the feed(s) directly into Outlook. Sites like the LA Times have the subscribe option, and when it is clicked your news reader (in this case NewsGator) is activated.

Figure1045

NewsGator takes the XML information and puts it into Outlook, allowing you to now view the latest information from the feed(s) you subscribed to.

Figure1046

In the Options panel you can determine how often the information is updated and whether it happens automatically or when you choose to do it.

NewsGator also offers a free browser based RSS service that you could try before you decide whether you want to bring the information into Outlook.

RSS and XML are emerging technologies that you will want to explore more thoroughly. If you want to begin to learn about XML with a view toward doing your own RSS, check out Laurie Rowell's series on XML schemas in Word.

Most of the main blogging tools are online and that's where you would add the information for having feeds generated automatically. In my update on video blogging using Serious Magic's tool, I talked about how the media link to the blog could be dragged and dropped into the HTML generating editor — the example I used was the blogging tool for Visual Being, a web log for the presentations industry to which I contribute.

Adding the HTML code for a specific set of aggregating tools can enable that tool to be launched automatically when the user clicks the button. NewsGator has such sample text available for TypePad, BlogSpot or a nonlisted blogging tool.

Why think about creating an RSS feed for your blog or web page? If your content is compelling enough, you can stay connected to your customers, clients or associates.

To my mind it's all a part of the concept behind the Office "System" which is built for connection and collaboration. Essentially the world's information becomes searchable in a massive database and you can use technologies like RSS to bring the most timely and relevant information directly into your email program, like MS Outlook.

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