How to use RSS

RSS (really simple syndication) is a way to get updates from your favorite websites.

At LCM you will see RSS buttons which allow you to subscribe to a particular section of interest. Clicking on these RSS buttons takes you to the RSS ‘feed’ page. From there you can ‘subscribe’ by dragging and dropping, or cutting and pasting, the RSS URL into your RSS reader.

By using RSS you will know instantly when any new articles are posted by your favorite LCM authors, or in your favorite LCM features.

RSS originated from newsfeeds, and so a particular thread is known as an RSS ‘feed’, although these days people use them to keep up to date with blogs and articles as much as news.

Reading RSS feeds

To subscribe to, and read, RSS feeds you need a reader or ‘aggregator’ (so called because it aggregates, or groups feeds together) Most web browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari) have RSS readers built-in.

When they detect an RSS feed on a page they display an RSS icon like this:

Clicking on the ICON will lead to a page telling you how to subscribe. Each aggregator (reader) is different.

If you are on a Mac you will see a blue RSS icon in the URL field. When you click on it, you will be prompted to choose an application to read your feeds. You can choose Mail or Safari.

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and higher  have built in readers and display an orange RSS icon in the toolbar to allow you to subscribe. If you are on an earlier version of IE you can download IE7 from the Microsoft website. (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/rss/default.mspx)

You can also join an aggregator service which displays many feeds in one place. An example is netvibes.com  You can read more about RSS readers here:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/rss1.htm