Read RSS Feeds in Outlook 2007

Feeds appear in Outlook's RSS Feeds folder as subfolders. Each subfolder represents a feed and contains articles or items from that feed. Each article is a "message" like an e-mail message. The Reading Pane works in the same way for feeds as for e-mail messages. Scan the items and click the one you want to read. The article should appear in the Preview window unless you have the Reading Pane turned off. You can also double-click the item to see it in its own window.

Click Reading Pane from the View menu to select the view for the current view. A typical item contains a short summary followed by a link to "View article." Click the link to read the full article in the browser.

If you don't download articles as attachments by default, you can do so on an individual item basis. Click the Infobar above the "Posted On" field to choose to view the full article in the browser or download the content. Keeping the download article to a minimum avoids using space on your hard disk.

Another way to download content is through an open article window. Click the "Download Content" icon from the Actions group and select "Download article."

Feeds can be sorted using the Arrange By menu on the View menu. You can change the sort by clicking the header of the item you want to sort by. Click the header again to reverse the sorting.

Do the following to group items:

1. Click Current View from the View menu and select Customize Current View.
2. Click Group By and uncheck the box next to Automatically group according to arrangement.
3. Select a field from the Group items by drop down list and select more fields for sorting, if needed.
4. Select another field, if needed, from the Then by drop down list.

The "Show field in view" in the Group By states whether to display the field for every item or to leave it off. After you read an item and select another, Outlook marks the item as read. Double-clicking an item does the same thing.

Save time: Right-click the feed's folder and select "Mark All as Read" to show them as read items.

AutoPreview on the View menu provides a summary of each item. If the Reading Pane is off, double-click any item to open it.

By now you know that feed items work like e-mail messages. This includes forwarding, flagging, printing, moving and deleting items. One thing you can't do with feeds, however, is reply or leave a comment in blog discussions from within the feed.

Forwarding a feed creates a new e-mail message containing the article's headers, short summary and link to the article. Right-click the item to forward and select "Forward." Address the message, make changes as needed and click Send.

Sharing a feed sends the link to subscribe to the feed rather than a specific article. The recipient can copy and paste the link into the feed reader just like you add a feed into Outlook.

If you want to share multiple feeds, then exporting them as an OPML may be a better option. To export RSS Feeds to an OPML file, do the following:

1. Select Import and Export from the File menu.
2. Select Export RSS Feeds to an OPML file and click Next.
3. Check and uncheck the feeds you want to export. Use Select All and Clear All, if needed. Click Next.
4. Enter a name for the file and click Next.

Looking for more user guides and tutorials? Be sure to take a look at the other items in Bright Hub's collection of Microsoft Outlook tips and tricks.