Update (7-30-09): Since I posted this, Newsgator has made some changes in how they do things. There will be a new version of FeedDemon that can sync with Google Reader, but it is not clear to me at this point whether it will still be free. More later on this.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had started using Newsgator’s FeedDemon to track blog posts. See the May 20, 2009, post here. I described some of the basic features in that post, but I have since discovered a number of other goodies in FeedDemon.

Since I am now subscribed to more than 70 blogs, I definitely don’t want all those feeds coming in to my e-mail. Subscribing by RSS feed with FeedDemon helps me to do a quick scan of the topics. The main screen looks like this:

Newsgatorscreen

The left column is the list of my subscribed blogs. In the center is the list of posts on the blog I’ve selected in the left column. The right column contains the blog post I’m currently reading. I scan the blog column where I see in bold print the ones that have updates. I select the one I want to read, and the latest post appears in the right window. I scan the title and first paragraph to see if it’s worth reading the whole thing. If not, I just mark it “read” and move on.

The blogs I subscribe to help me keep up with trends in the publishing industry, news from writers I follow, daily Bible study, world news—you name it. It would take me forever to read every word of every feed every day. FeedDemon helps me make quick work of it. I can flag individual posts (notice the blog titles in red font above. I can add posts to my clippings folder if I want to save them for later reference.

I’m not the only one who likes FeedDemon. See Reviewsaurus.com

If you use Google Reader, you will soon be able sync it with FeedDemon and have the best of both worlds. FeedDemon has new version coming out soon that allows this.  Check it out here.

Try it!  Go to the Newsgator site to download FeedDemon. It’s free. If you use use a Mac or iPhone, other Newsgator products are available here. Reminder: you do need to sign up for the online Newsgator account in order to use FeedDemon. With the online account, you can access your blogs from any computer (as long as you remember your username and password).