Vienna is another RSS feed reader that I’ve seen many people using. It is fairly simple, but does not sync with Google Reader. I personally use Vienna (version 2.5.0.2500.1507) for news only. I only want to read the news once a day so I easily set it up to check for new feeds every six hours. This way, I am not bogged with feeds and I can read them when I have the time, which is usually in the morning with my coffee. So here is some information about Vienna.
Vienna is a free open source news reader. It is simple, clutter free and has a clean user interface. You’ll see your feeds on the left and feed items on the right. If you are using the condensed layout (pictured above), hitting the return key opens the actual web site of the feed in Vienna’s built in browser.
Smart folders and folder groups is a nice feature of Vienna. Smart folders are similar to the iTunes smart folders allowing you to tweak folders the way you want. You do this from File<New Smart Folder in the menu bar and enter a name for the folder along with conditions to be met.
To create a Group Folder, go to File<New Group Folder in the menu bar and enter a name for your new group folder. Creating group folders make it easy to organize your feeds when you collect so many that it is hard to keep up with. Once you’ve created your folders, you can drag your feed items to a desired group folder for a cleaner layout, making your feeds easier to find. And if you need to find a certain feed, you could do so from the Search bar in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
So, how do you retrieve your Google Reader feed items? All you do when in Google Reader: is go to Manage Subscriptions, then to Import/Export and once you’re in the Import/Export screen, click on “Export your subscriptions as an OPML file,” and hit Save File. Once you’ve done that, go back to Vienna and click File<Import Subscriptions from the menu bar. This will open Finder so that you can grab your OPML file. That’s all there is to it.
Want to personalize Vienna? You can download Styles or learn how to create them from the Vienna web forums. There are also a few Styles already preloaded. Just click on View<Style in the menu bar and click on a style you want to use. Unfortunately, there is no preview of the styles, so you just have to click on each style until you find one that suits your needs. Plug-ins are also supported (see more information in the Vienna forums about plug-ins).
Change the way you view Vienna by going to View<Layout in the menu bar and choose either Report (feed item on top – feed article on bottom), Condensed (feed item in middle – feed article on right), or Unified (feed items all together).
Sorting your articles is just a click away. Click on View<Sort By in the menu bar and choose either Read, Flagged, Enclosure, Subject, Folder, Date, or Author. I personally just sort by date since there are days that I may not use Vienna. Sorting by date sorts by date in descending order. To sort by ascending order, just click on “Headlines” in the feed list and it changes it for you.
Filtering your articles is just as simple. Just click on View<Filter By in the menu bar, choose either All Articles, Unread Articles, Last Refresh, Today, or Flagged.
Flagging articles help keep them for future reference and keeps them in the “Marked Articles” smart folder (which is included in the download). To flag an article, just click Article<Mark Flagged from the menu bar. That’s it, now you will see your saved article in the “Marked Articles” folder.
Want to share an article with friends on Facebook, Twitter, or Evernote? All you do is click on Article in the menu bar and choose whether to share by Facebook, Evernote, or Twitter. It takes you to the built in browser for you to sign in and the rest is self explanatory.
To send a link via email, click on Article<Send Link in the menu bar and it opens your default mail handling application with the information ready to go.
Blogging about articles you read is handled through either Blogo or MarsEdit (I’m not sure if this is just based on whatever blogging application you may have on your Mac or if it is bundled with Vienna). To blog about an article, click on Article<Blog With in the menu bar and choose your desired blogging platform. It then opens your chosen application with the entire article ready for you to use.
Vienna does much more than I described in this article and is always being updated. Overall, it is easy to set up, use and has lots of potential. To find out more about Vienna, click on the icon at the end of the article to go to their website which has the download link, forums, styles to download, information about plugins, and more. It’s worth trying out. As usual, if you have used Vienna and want to tell others about your experiences with it, please feel free to leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers.
