Displaying feeds

The topic The RSS Bandit user interface, introduces the reading pane which displays the contents of a feed or group of feeds. As of version 1.3, RSS Bandit supports Newspaper Views ala FeedDemon.

If you were playing close attention, you may have noticed that the reading pane displayed on that page looks different than the reading pane after a default installation of RSS Bandit. Figure 1 shows the default look and feel of the reading pane.

Figure 1: Default Feed Item Format
Figure 1: Default Feed Item Format

Although this is a fine looking reading pane, suppose you would prefer a different look and feel for reading feed items. You're in luck. Under the Tools menu, click Options to bring up the Options dialogue. Click on the Feed Items tab to access the Single Item Formatting menu as in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Single Item Formatting Menu
Figure 2: Single Item Formatting Menu

Clicking the checkbox labelled Use a custom formatter allows you to select a Formatter Stylesheet. These are XSLT stylesheets used to format a feed item in the reading pane. It is not necessary to understand what an XSLT stylesheet is to use this. Select a style and click on the Apply button to see the style take immediate effect in the Reading Pane. Figure 3 shows the outlook2003-orange (this author's favorite) style.

Figure 3: Outlook2003-orange style
Figure 3: Outlook2003-orange style

Selecting the Formatter design mode checkbox is helpful when designing your own formatter stylesheet. Designing a stylesheet requires knowledge of XSLT and is an advanced topic that is discussed in the topic Customizing the way feeds look using XSLT.