Video: Google Reader Basics Tutorial
January 23rd, 2009
This is the first episode of what I intend to be a bi-weekly video show. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about it. If you have ideas for what you would like me to cover in a show, leave that in the comments as well. Not every episode will be an instructional screencast. I intend to cover much of the same material in the show as you might find on the site. I hope you like it. Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or your podcatcher. You can add either the HD Quicktime format (iTunes) or the iPod format (iTunes) to your podcatcher of choice! Two additional feed options are coming soon: Standard Definition Quicktime and Audio-only MP3.
Have you ever wondered how some people seem to keep track of all the latest news breaking online? How are they able to follow so many web sites? The secret is RSS coupled with a good feed reader. There are tons of options for feed reading including a multitude of both desktop applications and web-based applications. This tutorial focuses on one of the most popular options, Google Reader. Like many of Google’s services it has a simple interface, is free, fast, and available anywhere.
In the video, I demonstrate how to find feeds and add them to the app. Then I show how to use basic keyboard navigation. Here is a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for you keyboard junkies:
| j/k | item down/up | selects the next/previous item in the list |
| space/shift-space | page down/up | moves the page down/up |
| n/p | scan down/up | in list view, selects the next item without opening it |
| o | open/close item | in list view, expands or collapses the selected item |
| enter | open/close item | in list view, expands or collapses the selected item |
| s | toggle star | stars the selected item |
| shift-s | toggle share | shares the selected item |
| m | mark as read/unread | switches the read state of the selected item |
| t | tag an item | opens the tagging field for the selected item |
| v | view original | opens the original source for this article in a new window |
| shift-a | mark all as read | marks all items in the current view as read |
| 1 | expanded view | displays the subscription as expanded items |
| 2 | list view | displays the subscription as a list of headlines |
| r | refresh | refreshes the unread counts in the navigation |
| shift-n/p | navigation down/up | selects the next/previous subscription or folder in the navigation |
| shift-x | navigation expand/collapse | expand or collapse a folder selected in the navigation |
| shift-o | navigation open subscription | opens the item currently selected in the navigation |
| gh | go to home | goes to the Google Reader homepage |
| ga | go to all items | goes to the “All items” view |
| gs | go to starred items | goes to the “Starred items” view |
| gt | go to tag | allows you to navigate to a tag by entering the tag name |
| gu | go to subscription | allows you to navigate to a subscription by entering the subscription name |
| u | toggle full screen mode | hides and shows the list of subscriptions |
| ? | keyboard shortcuts help | displays a quick guide to all of Reader’s shortcuts |
There are a couple of useful shortcuts that I forgot to mention in the video. The “g” shortcuts allow you to filter your feeds in different ways. Press “g” followed by “a” to go to the all items view; “g” followed by “s” will show your starred stories; and “g” followed by “u” shows an overlay that lists all your subscribed feeds. Start typing the name of the feed you want to view and press enter to show stories only from that feed.
Here are some cool feeds to get you started. Take note that these feeds won’t do much without some sort of feed reader to view them. I am linking directly to the RSS not to the web site.
Tech
Internet
Gaming
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For fans of this site, those feeds will get you off to a good start. Don’t forget to subscribe to the raddevon.com feed! Also, feel free to choose one of the category feeds on the right if you want only one category of posts. Be sure to talk back in the comments. Which other feed readers do you use, and what makes them better than the mighty Google? Until next time!
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