Using FeedDemon with Bloglines: Overview

Bloglines is a free online service which enables reading feeds through your web browser. Because your feed subscriptions are stored online, you can access them from any computer - making it a nice solution for those who use multiple systems. The downside is that being browser-based, it's not as feature rich or as responsive as a desktop application like FeedDemon.

Luckily, you can have the best of both worlds by using FeedDemon to read your Bloglines subscriptions.

FeedDemon enables you to create a special Bloglines Channel Group which is synchronized with your Bloglines subscriptions. Unlike "normal" channels, Bloglines Channels contain only the items you haven't already read through Bloglines. Likewise, items you read in FeedDemon won't appear as new in Bloglines. This enables you to read your subscriptions in either FeedDemon or Bloglines without duplication of items you've already read.

Using FeedDemon with Bloglines: Synchronizing your Subscriptions

Adding New Subscriptions

If you add a feed to your Bloglines subscriptions, chances are you'll want it to show up in FeedDemon, too. This is very simple to do.

When viewing a Bloglines Channel Group, FeedDemon's "New Channel" toolbutton displays a Bloglines icon to let you know that you'll be adding a channel from your Bloglines subscriptions. Click this button to display the same "Add Bloglines Channel" wizard shown when you created the group. If any new subscriptions exist, this wizard will enable you to add them to FeedDemon. If no new subscriptions exist, FeedDemon will inform you that the current group already contains all your Bloglines subscriptions.

Removing Deleted Subscriptions

If you remove a channel from Bloglines, the next time FeedDemon attempts to update that channel it will inform you that it no longer exists in your Bloglines subscriptions, and ask whether you want to remove it from FeedDemon. If you choose not to remove it, you'll still be able to view previously downloaded items, but the channel's icon in the channel bar will appear disabled, and it will no longer update.

FeedDemon's User Interface

FeedDemon's user interface is divided into three main panels:

1. On the left is the channel bar, which contains the channels in the current channel group, followed by your watches and news bins
2. The second panel holds the news item list, which shows the current channel's news items
3. The third panel contains FeedDemon's browser, which is where newspapers are shown