We switched our RSS feed syndication to use Feedburner!

What does this mean for us?

Means that it’s easier to handle RSS feeds, instead of having three RSS feeds (the way Wordpress is set up) we’ve only got one RSS feed to manage.

What’s an RSS feed?

Depending on who you ask, RSS stands for different things. I first heard it was an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication”. It’s basically a way of receiving updates of your favourite websites, all in one location.

Rather than having to go to 10 different websites each morning to catch up on the news, I can power up Outlook 2007, and have all the latest updates sitting next to my email! Means that I don’t miss an update, and I spend less time searching and trying to figure out what is “new”.

How do I use RSS?

If you’re using Firefox, you’ll see a little orange RSS icon (like the one above) next to the website address, click that, and it will take you to our RSS feed, and direct you on how you can subscribe to the feed.

Other web browsers display it differently, but we have a link right at the bottom of our webpage (with that little icon) that you can click on to subscribe. (Alternatively, go to http://feeds.feedburner.com/UTSMSP)

Show me how to set it up in Outlook 2007!

Sounds like a good idea? Try it out!

1. Open Outlook 2007
2. Go to the Tools menu, and right at the bottom, select “Account Settings”
   
3. Go across to the third tab, labelled “RSS Feeds”, and click the “New” button:
   
4. Type in the RSS feed address, e.g. http://feeds.feedburner.com/UTSMSP), and click “Add”
   
5. On the next window you can select options for the RSS feed. The default options are fine, so just click “OK”
6. Now, under your “Personal Folders” in Outlook, you’ll see an “RSS Feeds” folder (with orange icon), and if you expand that, a “Microsoft Student Partners at UTS” folder!
   

What happens to your old feeds?

Nothing! If you’ve subscribed to the old feed, you’ll be seeing this new post! Our old feeds have all been combined into this new one: http://feeds.feedburner.com/UTSMSP

On a side note, good luck for exams!!

Chris