How to Add RSS Feeds to Outlook 2007 - Manage and Organize All Feeds in One Location

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How to Add RSS Feeds to Outlook 2007

If you see a feed icon on a Web site, you can subscribe to the feed with Outlook. You can also find feeds in feed directories like 2RSS.com and Syndic8, which are Web sites containing hundreds or thousands of feeds that you can search.

You can also share feeds with others by e-mail and sharing files with an .opml extension. Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) files contain many RSS feeds for easy importing and exporting.

OPML uses the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format, but presents the information in an outline. An OPML file typically contains many RSS links allowing people to share their feed subscriptions with others.

To add a feed in Outlook, do the following:

  1. Click Account Settings on the Tools menu.
  2. Select the RSS Feeds tab.
  3. Click New.
  4. Select and highlight the URL, press Ctrl+C to copy the URL and Ctrl+V to paste the link to the RSS feed into the New RSS Feed window.
  5. Click OK to open the RSS Feed Options window.
  6. Change the name of the feed, if needed.
  7. Click Change Folder, if you want the feed saved in a different folder. Click New Folder to create a subfolder under RSS Feeds or the currently selected folder to organize your feeds. Click OK.
  8. Leave the update limit box checked (see Note).
  9. Click Close to exit Account Settings.

Note: If you check for updates on a feed too frequently, the publisher may suspend your RSS feed subscription. The length of the suspension depends on the publisher and Outlook has no control over the suspension.

You can view the publisher’s update limit in the RSS Feed Options window.

  1. Click Account Settings from the Tools menu.
  2. Switch to the RSS Feeds tab.
  3. Select the feed you want to view.
  4. Click Change.

The limit appears on the bottom of the window.

If you have an OPML file, you can download many RSS feeds at one time. A friend could export feeds from a feed reader as an OPML file and you can import them into Outlook. Importing and exporting feeds as an OPML file simplifies sharing and moving feeds between applications. Import an OPML file using the following steps:

  1. Select Import and Export from the File menu to open the Import and Export Wizard.
  2. Select Import RSS Feeds from an OPML file, and click Next.
  3. Click Browse to locate the OPML file.
  4. Click Open and Next.
  5. Select the feeds you want to import or click Select All to import all feeds.
  6. Click Finish.

The drawback of using this method is that each feed receives its own folder. This could create a long list of folders under the RSS Feed folder. You can drag the feed folder into another folder. More on managing folders appears later in this series.

Outlook comes with feeds to help you get started. Access them by clicking on the RSS Feeds or RSS Subscriptions folder. Click any item and Outlook asks if you want to add the RSS Feed. Click “Yes” to automatically add it, or click “Advanced” to modify the feed’s settings before adding the feed. Remember you can always change the feed’s settings from the RSS Feeds tab in Account Settings.

“Automatically download Enclosures for this feed” in RSS Feed Options means including any attachments that appear in the RSS feed. Outlook does not download attachments by default. To change this, do the following:

  1. Click Account Settings on the Tools menu.
  2. Select the RSS Feeds tab.
  3. Select the feed you want to change and click Change.
  4. Select the checkbox next to Automatically download Enclosures for this feed, and click OK.
  5. Close Account Settings.

In the same way with e-mail messages having attachments, Outlook lets you know an item has an attachment with a paperclip icon next to the feed entry.

Note: Attachments with feeds can have potentially unsafe files. Use an anti-virus application to check such attachments.

The other download option includes the article as an attachment instead of as a link. When using the “Download linked article as an attachment” option, the feed contains the .HTML file as an attachment similar to an e-mail message with an attachment. This makes it possible to read feeds while offline or you want to save the article on your computer.

Change the option to view articles as HTML attachments, do the following:

  1. Click Account Settings on the Tools menu.
  2. Select the RSS Feeds tab.
  3. Select the feed you want to change and click Change.
  4. Select the checkbox next to Download the full article as an .html attachment to each item, and click OK.
  5. Close Account Settings.

You can also preview the attachment. Click the attachment once to select it and click “Preview file”. Notice the images don’t appear. Outlook blocks images as a security precaution. Click the Infobar to view the pictures.

Note: Infobar is the banner near the top of a message or item with information or instructions. For example, an Infobar in e-mail messages notes when you replied or forwarded the open e-mail message.

This post is part of the series: Outlook 2007 RSS Feeds

Stay on top of all your favorite web site content with Outlook 2007.

  1. What is an Outlook 2007 RSS Feed?
  2. Find and Add RSS Feeds to Outlook 2007
  3. Read RSS Feeds in Outlook 2007
  4. Manage RSS Feeds in Outlook 2007