Writer – Editor – Blogger
Posts tagged Google Reader
FeedDemon Redux
Sep 15th
FeedDemon is still the best way to follow multiple blogs, in my opinion. I’ve written about it in previous blogs here and here. Just after I posted my last rave about FeedDemon, I got an e-mail from Newsgator saying there would be changes, effective August 31, 2009. Here’s my take on the changes.
- There’s an ad in the lower left corner of the FeedDemon desktop. Annoying, but pretty unobtrusive.
- FeedDemon now syncs with Google Reader instead of Newsgator, which is an improvement, I think. I usually recommend Google Reader for beginners to feed-reading, because there are online tutorials on how to use it and it’s easy to use. Once a beginner has learned to use Google Reader, it’s easy enough to move to FeedDemon for more efficient blog tracking.
- I think it runs a bit slower than the old version, but I really can’t complain.
Go to the FeedDemon site for a complete overview including features description and screenshots. I welcome comments from anyone who uses another feed reader. If you would like to write a guest post on an alternate feed reader, e-mail me at akinemily[a]gmail.com.
Followup on FeedDemon: I Love It!
Jul 27th
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. More >
Update: Google Reader Tutorials Online
Jul 11th
Do you subscribe to blogs by e-mail subscription? If you have too much e-mail already, you might prefer to subscribe in a reader using RSS feed. There’s plenty of information about this on my Subscribing by RSS Feed page, but I just found another great resource I’d like to share with you.
Authortechtips.com has a post with some video tutorials on using Google Reader that are just excellent. Link to the post here.
I’ve recommended Google Reader to people wanting to use RSS feeds because so many people because it’s simple to use and tutorials are not hard to find. If you have a Gmail address, just log in to Gmail and look for the Reader link at the top. If you don’t have Gmail, go to www.reader.google.com to create an account.
Once you set up your Google Reader, come back to this blog and subscribe! Also, see the links to my other blogs in the sidebar to your left.
Blogs and Feeds
May 12th
On one of the online groups I belong to, someone asked, “What are feeds and how do I learn to use them.” Not a direct quote, but close. This person had tried to find answers on the Net, but she said the information she found was too technical for her as a beginner. This post is an attempt to solve her problem.
Six Apart has a great beginners’ explanation of feeds. Click here to read the entire article, then come back for my specific recommendations on how to get started using feeds to follow other people’s blogs.
The article mentions several feed readers (or aggregators) that can be used to make following blogs efficient. Google Reader is easy to use, and there are online tutorials where you can learn how to use it. If you don’t have a Google account, you have to set one up at www.reader.google.com. Once you set up your username and password for Reader, you can use Gmail and other Google services from the same account.
For those who already have a Google account, just log in to your Gmail account. Reader appears as one of your choices at the top of the page. Click on Reader. The help section doesn’t really tell you much unless you know something about feed readers, so I suggest you go to the video tutorials at Butterscotch.com and work through all of the lessons on using RSS feeds and Google Reader. There are several, but here’s the link to the first one.
If you don’t have a Google account and don’t want to open one, you can use any one of a number of feed readers recommended in the Six Apart article. I have tried Bloglines and Newsgator myself. Both are free services, so I suggest you try them both before making your decision on which you will use. Sign up for a Bloglines account at http://www.bloglines.com/. Newsgator can we used online, or you can download FeedDemon for use on your computer. To get started with Newsgator, set up your account at http://www.newsgator.com/.
If you just want to keep it simple, Google Reader is your best bet. Once you are familiar with how the feed reader works, you can check out the others.
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Online Video Help for Beginners
Apr 29th
Are you new to the Internet? E-mail? Blogging? Need to learn how to follow other people’s blogs with RSS Readers? Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, don’t worry. There’s Butterscotch.com, a site that provides a number of online video tutorials to help you learn what you need to know to be a more informed Wired Writer.
For e-mail, there are tutorials on Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo. If you’ve heard Mozilla Firefox mentioned as a great alternative to Windows Explorer Web browser but didn’t know how to find out about it, there’s a tutorial for that. Learn how to follow blogs on with the RSS Feeds and Google Reader lesson. Social networking is covered, too. Take your own personal beginner course for Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Visit the tutorial page to see the rest.
Butterscotch’s sales pitch for the tutorials says: “Butterscotch tutorials are your step-by-step guide to maximizing your tech potential. Our tutorials offer tips and tricks explained in plain English, without the jargon. Short, sweet and to the point, we offer practical PC advice you can start using right away to save time, money and headaches. We help you get the most out of your computer and gadgets.”
There’s no time like the present, so link on over to Butterscotch tutorials right now and try it out. Be sure to turn your audio on. Not only will you get to watch each step, you have an instructor describing it throughout. If you don’t see the play bar for the video, mouse over the bottom of the video box and the play bar will appear. You can adjust volume some there, too. If you have difficulty and/or have questions, feel free to e-mail me at akinemily(a)gmail.com.
New Year, New Computer Stuff
Jan 6th
Online groups and some blogs have alerted me to potential security problems with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (which I really liked), so I have switched to Mozilla Firefox Web browser. Some of my friends were already using Firefox, having been told that it was more secure than IE.
I switched a couple of weeks ago, and, so far, Firefox is fine. I do think it’s a little faster than IE. The bookmark process is different, so I had a bit of a learning curve there. On IE7, I used the Favorites menu feeds feature to track my RSS feeds. I didn’t immediately find a similar feature on Mozilla, so I just transferred all my feeds to Google Reader. If you have Gmail, you don’t need a new password to use Reader.
I spent my Christmas cash on MS Office 2007 Small Business, so I now have the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Outlook. Another learning curve! I still haven’t found all my favorite commands on Word. I tried importing my RSS feeds into Outlook, but I didn’t like it as much as I like Google Reader. The updating process seemed to slow down my e-mail delivery. With Google Reader, I can stay logged in as long as I’m online and check periodically for updates.
Also, I got a Bamboo Fun input device for Christmas. I’ve installed it and fiddled around with it some, but I’m still really in the dark as to what this gadget will do for me. More on that later, I guess.
