Office 2007 and RSS feeds

RSS is definitely the key to up to date info about software releases like WPF/E or AJAX. But with RSS feeds comes one simple problem... how to get them all in a decent manner.

My basic issue with RSS readers I've tried is that RSS feeds are spread apart as much as possible. By this I mean to read blogs, you generally have to click on an object for each blogger to read their new blog for the day, then onto the next blog that's been updated today. It can take a few clicks to read the latest blogs.

My goal was to always have one central feed, or perhaps 3 or 4. Maybe like Programming, News, Sports, Fun. So every programming blog I subscribe to goes into one folder. So when I log in that morning I have simply have 5 unread Programming blogs.

So think about email with Outlook. You can sort by sender, date, subject, conversation (great for newsgroups BTW) and where you want you can send certain emails to other folders to keep them out of the "main stream". You log in that morning and X emails await you, which is great. So when I heard Office 2007 would support RSS, I figured this would be very similar and allow such flexibility. I was wrong... kind of.

By default Office 2007 adds each feed to a new folder, and doesn't make it obvious there is an alternative, which I find frustrating. Once added, each folder is completely separate and can't be merged into one giant feed. However in each folder, you still have all the ordering features, but what's the point when it's all one blog.

So this is how I've setup my RSS in Outlook 2007. It's the long way but worth it in the end I think, solving the problem I had.

1. Right Click on RSS Feeds and choose "Add a New RSS Feed"
2. Enter the URL for the RSS Feed (usually found by clicking the orange antennae symbol and copying the URL it takes you too)
3. Click Add, and when the next dialog appears click Advanced.
4. Click Change Folder
5. While RSS Feeds is highlighted click New Folder and type a general name for you feed like Programming
6. Highlight Programming and press OK
7. Also notice the Downloads section has a "Download the full article as .html..." I click that as some really good posts include images which make things worthwhile.
8. Press OK and then Yes to finish it off, and you have your feed going to a Programming folder.

There is absolutely nothing stopping you adding more feeds to this folder, with the added benefits, that if you check your feeds folder today, the Programming folder will contain all useful programming feeds for today, in full html format and you don't need an external program to achieve this. And all in your new install of Office 2007, which I know for me, adds a nice reason to upgrade.