Basics4Mac - Subscribing to RSS Feeds in Safari

Learning to use RSS

RSS Bookmarks
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Safari has a feature called RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication. In a nutshell, that means that certain websites offer a way to "subscribe" to them so that you can see when new articles have been added.

RSS feeds are usually found on websites that regularly add articles like news site or Basics4Mac, You can tell if a site offers an RSS feed by looking for the blue and white RSS icon on the right side of the address bar on a website's Home Page.

To view the RSS feed for a website, click on the blue and white RSS icon. In RSS view you normally see just the title and introduction of recent articles. This lets you scan recent items quickly for an article that interests you. To read the complete article, click on the article's title.

(Tip: Control-click on the article title to open the full article new browser tab. That way when you are done reading the article you can close the tab and return to the RSS view where you left off.)

If you have many websites that you visit every day, you can subscribe to an RSS feed so you will have a quick snapshot of the latest articles posted by those sites. In Safari, to subscribe to an RSS feed, you create a Bookmark for it.

While in RSS view, click the + button to the left of the address bar to create a bookmark or review this tip on creating bookmarks on the bookmark bar.

RSS Bookmarks show the number of unread articles in parentheses next to the bookmark name. You can use that as a visual cue that you have articles to read.