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Tracker for XML RSS Newsfeeds
By Cari Jansen | April 30, 2005
Digitip 034 - Acrobat 7 Professional
What are these orange XML icons with RSS newsfeed (or other) written next to them are appearing on more and more web-sites… and what can Acrobat do with them?
Introduction
The term RSS-feeds (Really Simple Syndication* format) is appearing on more and more web-sites. Peoples Web logs, News-based web-sites… they all seem to be supplying information using RSS-format, which is indeed an XML based format (hence the XML button!)
So what can we do with it? The main purpose of RSS seems to be the sharing of itemised information (small ‘blurbs”) or teasers that are automatically updated as the authors add more information on their web-sites. A program (such as Adobe Acrobat 7) that is RSS-aware, can be used to subscribe to these information feeds and will keep track of updates made and list this in the Tracker…
Find the URL first
Before you can use Acrobat’s Tracker as an RSS ‘news’ Reader, you must first find the correct URL (web address) to which your subscription must point. Many web-sites today list their RSS feed using the orange XML button (with RSS feed or something equivalent written next to it).
Right-clicking (Ctrl on a single button mouse) this button allows you to copy the short-cut to the clipboard.
As an example: You’ll find that CNN has a long list of RSS subscriptions (http://www.cnn.com/services/rss/) and Adobe Systems also supplies RSS feeds for its products (http://www.adobe.com/support/rss_main.html) that enable you to stay up-to-date on top issues and recent support documents that are added.
Tracker
Once you have access to the URL for your newsfeed, launch the Tracker (Comments menu).
Under the Services menu select Subscribe…
Enter the full URL including the http:// for your subscription (as indicated in the Add Subscription dialog that appears).
Then click OK, and wait a few seconds (or longer depending on your internet connection speed).
The tracker will add your new subscription to the list of subscriptions. Unread ‘posts’ are displayed in bold (much like your email program).
Clicking the post heading below your expanded topic list, results in displaying the subscription header and possibly a small “schpiel” on the topic in the right hand pane.
Click the subscription header, to navigate to the relevant web page (in your web browser) containing your full story.
On Windows, after launching Acrobat a small Tracker icon in the Taskbar indicates the number of unread items in your list of subscriptions.
Happy readings 
(*)Note The RSS Acronym stands for various things… depending on which RSS format you are looking at, version 2.0 RSS = Really Simple Syndication (source: www.wikepedia.com)