Step by step guide to subscribing to an RSS feed

There are only a few simple steps involved in setting up your personal computer to receive subscribe to and receive RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

As the name suggests, RSS is a really simple way of finding out when sites that you like to visit have new content without actually having to visit them. If the site has an RSS feed then a special piece of software on your computer will check it regularly and tell you when there is something new. If there is a podcast available it will also alert you and let you download it.

Getting started

The first thing you will need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the RSS feeds that you tell it to and lets you read any new articles that have been added to them. There are many different versions available, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications.

Below you will find a list of links enabling you to download many different news readers that are available.  If at any point new versions of the software listed below or entirely new software becomes available, we will notify you via RSS feeds (if you have subscribed).  If you choose to not subscribe to any of our feeds, please check our home page regularly for news of any software updates.

Windows

• Newz Crawler
• FeedDemon
• Awasu

Mac OS X

• Awasu
• Newsfire

Web

• Bloglines
• My Yahoo!
• NewsGator

Browser

• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari

Subscribe to RSS Feeds

Once you have the software installed you need to subscribe to some RSS feeds to receive content and headlines. How you do this will vary depending on which software you have chosen.

Here is a rough guide to how this might work:

If you have an RSS news feed reader

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want to receive in your news reader, by finding and subscribing to the relevant RSS feeds.

If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader. Most sites that offer RSS feeds use a similar orange RSS button, but some may just have a normal web link to the feed.

If you have a browser with RSS features

Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for RSS feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to RSS feeds much easier. For more details on these, please check their respective websites for further guidance.

Need a bit more help?

If you cannot find the answers you’re looking for, use the contact form and we will endeavour to get back to you within 24 hours.