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Understanding RSS
You might have come to this page wondering what that big fat RSS button is on the horizontal navigation bar of this website. In short its a technology called Really Simple Syndication and the only really important thing to remember about it is the word Simple.
What is RSS?
RSS lets us syndicate this site and people can be automatically notified of any new weblog articles or new pages we’ve created. All you need to do is to install a small piece of software called a reader onto your own computer and every time you open it up the updates will seek you out without you doing much at all.
What Readers are Recommended?
Some suggested reader software? Well I’m on a Microsoft Windows system and I use FeedReader (download Feedreader here) - it is a bit over a megabyte in size (about the size of a floppy disc) and you only need to download it and click to install. It is also FREE and I like free stuff best.
Another reader you might want to consider is called Attensa Outlook (download Attensa Outlook from their site). This reader incorporates into your Outlook program and puts itself as a nifty link on your browser toolbar for easy access - its one of the best and still free.
My third choice, if you are using Mac OS X, would be NetNewsWire (download NetNewsWire here). Again this is a free program.
How Do I Use The Reader?
Once you have installed your reader on your computer desktop you might want to press that big RSS button at the top of our web pages throughout this website. You will see a plain text page which is actually an automatically generated news feed of our website. You just need to copy the URL from the title bar - its the one that usually looks like
http://www.something…
Finally go to your reader program and select to add a new feed - paste in the URL of that text page you copied and voila it’s done! You’ll automagically receive updates whenever you open your reader program and someone has posted a weblog article or new page on Hunter Island Press.
Could You Make That In Short Steps?
OK in simple terms you just need to
- Install a small reader program on your computer
- Go to the page called RSS and copy the address in the title bar
- Open your new reader and select Add A New Feed
- Finally, paste that page address into the reader where it asks you
A Little More
This also applies to other websites and when you get comfortable you might want to go exploring what RSS is about. Look for buttons or links which say RSS, RSS 2.0, Syndication, Feed, XML or Atom (yeh that’s confusing but they all mean the same thing). Copy that link into your reader and you’re subscribed to their feed for updates.
Really Simple Syndication is the opposite of email. Where email is pushed at you this technology requires you to pull it to you by subscribing so you need nott be concerned about being spammed by RSS. If you decide you don’t want a site’s updates anymore then you just unsubscribe by deleting the feed in our reader.
So There We Go - Its Really Simple
So I hope you give it a try and enjoy the rich content we look forward to providing our fellow artists and friends in all things Printmaking! If you have any questions or would like more information - or HELP - on this subject contact the site Webmistress and we will do our best to assist you.
