Behold! The Rss Bandit User Interface. After you complete installation, you should see something that looks like figure 1 below, though with a few less feeds on the left.
Figure 1. The Rss Bandit User Interface.
Let's take a quick tour of the interface. At the very top of the interface, you'll notice a toolbar with multiple buttons (figure 2). Most of these items are pretty self explanatory. The functions for each of these buttons are fleshed out elsewhere in the documentation.
Figure 2. Close up of the Tool Bar.
On the left is a list of the feeds to which you are subscribed. The feeds are organized into category folders that you can create. See figure 3 for a close up. To create a new category, simply right click on any existing category folder (or the top level "My Feeds" folder) to bring up a context menu. The second option on that menu is "New Category". Alternatively you can hit the SHIFT + F4 after selecting a category folder.
Figure 3. Close up of the Feed List.
On the right of the feed list is the main Feed Details panel divided into two panes. The top pane contains the list of headlines (figure 4) for the selected feed or feed category. When a category is selected, RSS Bandit displays the headlines for every feed in that category and sub-category recursively. When a single feed is selected, only the headlines for that feed are displayed. Right clicking on a headline item brings up a context menu allowing you to take such actions as posting a reply (if the underlying feed supports the Comment API), Flagging it, marking it as unread, copying it, deleting it, arranging the headline columns, and emailing it.
Figure 4. Close up of the Headlines Pane.
The bottom pane contains the actual content of a selected headline. The look and feel of the reading pane can be customized by choosing a formatter stylesheet via the Options menu. Figure 5 below is using the outlook2003-orange formatter.
Figure 5. Close up of the Reading Pane.
Rss Bandit allows you to customize the layout of the reading pane and headlines list. By going to the "View" menu and selecting "Reading Pane Position", you can place the Reading Pane on top, to the right or left, or underneath the Headlines pane.