RSSOwl - Frequently asked questions
 
- Is there any tutorial available?

 o Please select "Tutorial..." from the "Help" menu or press "F1" on Windows.


- I am not sure if I use the newest RSSOwl Version

 o Perform an update check at "Help" > "Check for update"
   
   By default RSSOwl automatically checks for a new version after startup.
   This setting may be changed at "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Workbench"


- Where do I find RSS / RDF newsfeeds?

 o 1.) Use the RSS & RDF search engine ("Tools" > "Search for RSS / RDF newsfeeds")
   
   2.) Browse the latest best rated and personalized recommendations of AmphetaRate
   
   3.) Search at RSS & RDF search sites and archives:
   
    http://www.newsisfree.com
    http://www.weblogs.com/
    http://www.rss-verzeichnis.de/


- How do I import an OPML file into RSSOwl?

 o Please right-click on the tree holding the favorites.
   Select "Import" > "From OPML File" and RSSOwl will
   create a new category filled with any newsfeeds from the OPML.
   If you select "Import" > "From OPML File (Sub-Category)" the
   new category will be created as sub-category of the selected
   one (if a category is selected).


- What are the requirements to use the Internal Browser?

 o Requirements on Windows: Internet Explorer 5 and above
   Requirements on Linux:  Mozilla 1.4 GTK2 and above
   Requirements on Mac: Panther OS X.3, Safari based
   
   Please see the topic "What do I need to run the Internal Browser on Linux?"
   in this FAQ how to enable Mozilla as internal browser for RSSOwl.
   
   The Internal browser is currently not supported on Solaris.
   
   The default browser is executed automatically if the internal
   browser is not installed. The browser will open outside of
   RSSOwl.
   
   If you want to use any other browser than the default, please goto
   "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Browser" and enter the path to the
   executable of your browser. RSSOwl will pass the URL as argument
   to the executable.


- What do I need to run the Internal Browser on Linux?

 o A supported version of Mozilla must be installed (1.4 GTK2 or above 1.4). 
   
   Set the environment variable MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME to your Mozilla installation folder. e.g. setenv MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME /usr/lib/mozilla 
   
   Set the environmnent variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME. e.g. setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME}:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} 
   
   Your standalone SWT application can now use the Browser widget.


- How is it possible to quickly close tabs?

 o Simply double-click on the tab to have it closed.
   
   The other close-operations are performed when having Ctrl / Command
   or the Shift Key pressed while double-clicking:
   
   Double-click with pressed Ctrl / Command Key: Perform "Close Others"
   Double-click with pressed Shift Key: Perform "Close All Except Feeds"


- How do I make RSSOwl show the Windows XP skins?

 o Please note that RSSOwl automatically trys to enable the WinXP skin for RSSOwl.
   If you use WindowsXP and the skin did not change, try the following:
   
   In order for an application to show the Windows XP skins, there must be a manifest
   file located in the same place as the executable that launches the application
   (the executable will be java.exe or javaw.exe).
   
   The name of the manifest file must match the name of the executable, for example
   javaw.exe.manifest.
   
   Open the "rssowl.jar" with any compression tool, that supports the Java Archive
   format. Copy both manifest-files from the "usr" folder to the folder of the
   executing JVM (must be the same directory, where java.exe or javaw.exe is in).
   
   Execute RSSOwl. The WindowsXP Look & Feel should now be displayed.


- Which newsfeed formats are supported?

 o RSSOwl is supporting RSS versions 0.91, 0.92 and 2.0, RDF version 1.0
   and Atom Syndication Format 0.3.


- What is AmphetaRate and how do I rate news?

 o AmphetaRate is a centralized ratings/recommendation service that provides
   personalized news and blog recommendations. Each news found in your subscribed
   feeds may be rated "Fantastic", "Good", "Moderate", "Bad" and "Very bad".
   Your recommendations are computed by Bayesian filtering and an algorithm finding 
   people who share your taste.    
               
   AmphetaRate sends you its recommended articles that you certainly will like but 
   have probably missed.
   
   To use AmphetaRate, you have to enter your AmphetaRate User ID. RSSOwl will then
   automatically create the recommendation newsfeed, that holds the recommended articles.
   
   If the user is new to AmphetaRate a User ID can be registered from RSSOwl with a simple
   click on the "Register a new User ID" button ("Tools" > "Preferences" > "AmphetaRate").
   
   The recommendation feed's news come with the newstext and the url of the feed where
   the news was published. This URL is mouse-sensitive. A mouseclick on it will open the
   "Add to favorites" dialog, to add the feed to the favorites.
   
   The "Latest best news" on AmphetaRate is a feed containing the latest best rated news.
   This feed is accessible even if you are not registrated to AmphetaRate. The feed is
   added to RSSOwl per default.
   
   For more informations, please visit: http://amphetarate.sourceforge.net


- I miss the possibility to print newstext

 o The graphic library that RSSOwl uses supports printing only on Windows and Mac. As SWT is developed
   to new versions, printing will be possible in the future and then activated in RSSOwl on
   Linux.
   
   Until then, please use the export feature to print PDF or RTF documents with your favorite
   reader.


- The language I chose is not displayed correctly

 o Please make sure that the font that is selected in "Tools" > "Preferences"
   > "Workbench" > "Fonts" supports the special characters of the selected
   language. In the case of Japanese or Chinese please select a Unicode
   Font, for example Arial Unicode MS.


- How does RSSOwl indicate unread news are available?

 o Any unread news are displayed with a bold font-style in the list of news-headers.
   In addition, any favorite containing unread news will indicate this by having a
   blue-colored lense (instead of a white one) left to its title in the tree. All
   parent categories of that favorite will change to an icon with a small letter
   filled folder. This allows to easily see which categories contain favorites
   with unread news.
   Additionaly if RSSOwl is minimized to tray, the icon changes to an Owl overdrawn
   by a green arrow.


- Is it possible to load a newsfeed on startup?

 o There are several ways to have RSSOwl open newsfeeds on startup:
   
   1.) Right-click on any favorite and select "Open on startup" in the preferences
   dialog. 
   Any favorites with this option selected will open after startup automatically.
   
   2.) Select "Re-Open last opened feeds on startup" in "Tools > Preferences >
   Workbench". This will automatically reopen the feeds that where opened
   after exit on startup.
   
   3.) The application is accepting one argument. If the parameter is a valid URL or an
   existing local file, RSSOwl will open it as newsfeed. For example:
   
   "java -jar rssowl.jar http://www.myrss.com/rss.xml"
   
   If you use the script to start RSSOwl, please edit it and add the parameter.


- Is it possible to open the news of an entire category in one tab?

 o Rightclick on a category and select "Aggregate Favorites". You may also perform a fulltext
   search on all favorites of the category and sub-categories using "Search".


- Is it possible to update feeds automatically in a certain period?

 o Right-click on a favorite and select "Edit": "Auto update".
   You may also select to update the feed on startup of RSSOwl.


- Is it possible to use RSSOwl on a different PC and keep my settings?

 o All settings and favorites are saved in the "user.xml". Usually this file is
   stored in your home directory in ".rssowl/".
   
   The easiest way is to export the settings and import them in RSSOwl on your
   other computer ("Tools" > "Preferences" > "Export Settings", "Import Settings").


- Is it possible to read the news after going offline?

 o One way is described in "What does "Save RSS" do?". You may also use
   each newsfeed offline that you have opened while being online. RSSOwl
   saves each opened newsfeed in memory. Please do not use "Reload news"
   while being offline. This will cause an error because RSSOwl tries to
   reload the newsfeed from the URL.


- Is it possible to use a proxy server with RSSOwl?

 o Please goto "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Proxy" and enter host, port and
   if required username and password of your proxy server.
   The proxy server is now used for every RSS / RDF newsfeed you open.
   
   See the next topic how to disable the usage of the proxy for certain favorites.


- Is it possible to disable the usage of a proxy for some favorites?

 o Yes. Just rightclick on a category or favorite in the tree displayed on the
   left side and select "Preferences" > "Use proxy". Click once to remove
   the check mark. If you (de-)check the "Use proxy" setting in a category
   all favorites in all subcategorys are affected.
   
   To disable use of the proxy for a subscription, simply rightclick on one
   of the categorys that the subscription holds and (de-)check the "Use Proxy"
   setting.


- Is it possible to read RSS / RDF from a source that needs authentification?

 o If RSSOwl attemps to open a newsfeed from a site that is protected with
   a username and password it opens a dialog for you to authenticate. After
   a successfull authentification the newsfeed is displayed.
   
   If you don't want to enter username and password each time, simply add
   a favorite with the syntax: "http://username:password@yourfavorite.com/rss.xml".
   RSSOwl automaticly recognizes the username / password and authenticates to the
   site.
   Be carefull, the username and password are saved plain text to the "user.xml".


- What is the meaning of "Aggregate Favorites"

 o The "Aggregate Favorites" feature appears in the popupmenu on the
   tree holding the favorites after right-click on any category.
   RSSOwl will aggregate all news from all sub-categorys of the selected
   category into one tab. You may also search in the list of aggregated news.
   An export to PDF, RTF or HTML is possible too.


- What does "Save RSS" do?

 o If you have an opened RSS newsfeed in the tabfolder you may save the
   entire newsfeed to a local XML file. You may open the file later
   with "Select file" in "Quickview" or just by adding a favorite with the
   path to the file.


- I get an error after I try to open a XML. What could be the problem?

 o Several things may go wrong when trying to open a XML:
   
    - Please make sure that the URL / Path you entered leads to an existing file
    - Please do not forget the "http://" at the beginning of an URL
    - Please make sure that the file is a valid and wellformed RSS or RDF XML document


- I get an error after I try to load a subscription. What could be the problem?

 o Several things may go wrong when trying to load a subscription:
   
    - Please make sure that the URL / Path you entered leads to an existing file
    - Please do not forget the "http://" at the beginning of an URL
    - Note that you may only subscribe to files that are written in the RSSOwl user.xml format


- An icon of one favorite has changed to a lense with a red cross in it

 o If RSSOwl was unable to load the favorite, the icon changes to indicate
   that you should check the URL / Path you entered. When the favorite was
   loaded successfully, the icon changes back to the normal lense again.


- What are subscriptions in RSSOwl?

 o A subscription is a file that stores RSS / RDF newsfeeds. The file may be
   accessed from RSSOwl with entering the path into the new subscription.
   After successfull loading of the subscription it displays the favorites
   (and categorys if existing) in the tree on the left side. Subscriptions
   allow sharing of favorites with other people.


- How do I create subscriptions that other may subscribe to?

 o Just rightlick on a category in the tree on the left side and choose
   "Export" > "Create subscription" and select a path where to save the
   subscription file. The file will hold all subcategorys and favorites
   of the selected category.
   Place the file for example on a webserver and give the URL to your
   friends. They will be able to subscribe to that file and see the
   favorites in RSSOwl.


- Where may I release my subscriptions?

 o If you do not have access to a webserver, just ask me and I will
   release your subscription file on my SourceForge webspace.


- What are "empty news"?

 o An empty news is a news with no description. Select "Open empty news in
   browser automatically" in "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Workbench" to open
   the URL of the news directly when selecting it.


- What are "Channel infos"?

 o Channel infos are informations about the newsfeed. Those may be
   language, description, image, link to the newspage, and so on.
   They show up when clicking on the title of the newsfeed.


- What does "Reload" do?

 o RSSOwl will reload the selected newsfeed from the URL / Path (Ctrl+R).


- How do I manage my favorites?

 o Just rightclick on an element in the tree on the left side and use the popup menue.
   You may also use the "File" > "New" menu. All elements of the favorites tree support
   Drag and Drop. That allows an easy management of favorites and categories.


- How to use the context-menus on Mac?

 o Normally the only way to open the various context-menus in RSSOwl is with using the 
   right mouse-button. As the Mac mouse has only one button, please hold the Ctrl-Key 
   pressed while clicking with the mouse-button and the desired context-menu will open.


- What is the difference between creating a new category or a new subcategory?

 o Creating a subcategory will create a new category as a child of the selected one.


- What is the meaning of "Subscription (Sub Category)"

 o Creating a Subscription as Sub Category will create a new subscription as a child
   of the selected category.


- What arguments are accepted by rssowl.exe?

 o To specify the Java Virtul Machine that should be used to execute RSSOwl, use the
   optional parameter "-vm=". For example "rssowl -vm=C:/j2sdk_1_4_1". The exe will
   then look into the folder "bin" searching for the "javaw.exe".
   
   To let RSSOwl open a newsfeed on startup, simply append the location. For
   example "rssowl http://www.myrss.com/rss.xml".


- I found a bug. What should I do?

 o Please visit the RSSOwl bugtracker @ sourceforge and post your bug


- I miss a feature that would be cool to have

 o Please visit the RSSOwl Feature Request database:
   http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=86683&atid=580505


- I would like to translate RSSOwl to a new language

 o We are always interested for new translations.
   Feel free to contact me: bpasero@users.sourceforge.net


- How do I get in contact with the RSSOwl development team?

 o Please visit our forum at: http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=86683
   
   A public mailing list is available at: http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/rssowl-users
   
   You may also contact me via eMail: bpasero@users.sourceforge.net


- Is there any public mailinglist available for RSSOwl users?

 o Please visit http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/rssowl-users


- I have a question that is not answered in this FAQ. What can I do?

 o Please visit the RSSOwl forum: http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=86683
   or the public mailing-list: http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/rssowl-users
   
   Feel free to post any questions.