2. Subscribing to RSS feeds using Thunderbird email client

RSS feeds can be viewed in an 'RSS aware' email programme such as Mozilla Thunderbird. This client is available for a number of different platforms; Windows, Mac and Linux.

Setting up Thunderbird

  • Open the Account Settings dialog box
    Account Settings
    Figure 4. Account Settings dialog box


    and select Add Account

    Select Add account button
    Figure 5. Account Settings Screen
  • From the New Account box select RSS News and Blogs Click Next

    New Account - select RSS news and blogs
    Figure 6. New Account Screen
  • Give the account an identifiable name and click Next

    Give the account a name
    Figure 7. Account Name Screen
  • Verify that the settings are correct and click Finish

    Confirm your settings
    Figure 8. Verify Information screen
  • A new account will appear in your accounts listings.
  • Select the name of the new account to open the settings page.

    Figure 9. Managing your RSS feeds
  • Click on Manage Subscriptions to open the RSS subscriptions box.

    RSS subscriptions
    Figure 10. RSS subscriptions
  • Next select Add
  • The News Feed Properties box appears. Type in the url of the newsfeed e.g. OUCS courses is: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/rss/courses.rss

    input the url of the feed
    Figure 11. News Feed Properties
  • Click on OK. The feed will then be verified before appearing in the newsfeed list.

    News feed list
    Figure 12. News feed list
  • Click OK to close the list.

Viewing your feeds

  • Click the + sign next to the name of your RSS folder to open the list of feeds you are subscribed to.
  • Select one by clicking on the name.
  • A list of the most recent news items from that feed will then appear.

    News item
    Figure 13. News Item
  • Clicking the news item will open the feed.

Deleting unwanted feeds

  • Open the Manage Subscriptions page and click on the name of the feed.
  • Select either the Edit button to alter the feed url, or press the Delete button to remove the feed from your list.

    Manage Subscriptions
    Figure 14. Manage Subscriptions screen
  • Close the RSS subscriptions page by pressing OK.
  • The name of the old newsfeed and any downloaded content will still be on your machine.
  • To remove them from your email package, right click on the name of the folder and select Delete Folder from the options list.

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