Habari Xenu - A brief HOWTO

How do I begin using it?
Habari Xenu uses a folder in your bookmarks (called 'Feeds Root') to store and manage its news sources. When you launch Habari Xenu, if such a folder does not exist, a sample one is created and seeded with a few feeds.

You will see your news sources listed in the left side ('Your Subscriptions' box). Click on the news source you are interested in. The program will display the latest headlines fetched from that news source on the right side. When you find a headline that piques your interest just click on the headline to get the full story displayed in new window.

See the section titled 'Where do I find some interesting feeds?' below to help you get some more feeds.

How do I update all my feeds in a batch?
Headlines can be fetched from your newssources in a batch mode too. Click the button marked 'Update Feeds'. Headlines will be fetched from all your news sources and checked for changes. If the feed has been changed since the last time you saw it, it is highlighted in bold letters. At a glance you can now see which feeds have new headlines and which ones are unchanged.

What feed formats does Habari Xenu support?
Habari Xenu can handle feeds in RSS (versions 0.91, 0.92, 1.0 and 2.0) and Atom formats.

How do I add/manage my news feeds?
Since Habari Xenu uses a portion of your bookmarks to store and manage your newsfeeds, you can add/change/delete/manage your feeds just like you will your bookmarks. You can either do this through the Bookmark Manager or Habari Xenu -> Edit Feeds....

How do I change the Feeds Root folder?
The folder under which you have bookmarks saved pointing to all your news sources is the Feeds Root folder. When you launch Habari Xenu, a Feeds Root folder is created for you. You can change your Feeds Root folder to be some other bookmark folder by going to Habari Xenu -> Settings....

How do I open the full story in a new tab instead of a new window?
If you, like me, prefer the full story behind a headline to be opened in a new browser tab instead of a new window, all you have to do is Control+Click (Command+Click on Macs) on the headline. If your browser's Tabbed Browsing is optimized for use with Habari Xenu, the full story will be opened in a new tab in the background as you continue to scan the other headlines.

Go to Habari Xenu -> Settings... ->Display Settings and click on the button titled 'Optimize Tabbed Browsing' to automagically have the configuration done for you.

Where do I find some interesting feeds?
Habari Xenu comes with an OPML file containing sample feeds that the author finds interesting and amusing. You can import these feeds into Habari Xenu easily by following these simple steps:

1. Open the sample OPML feeds list in a new window.
2. Switch to the newly opened window and save it to a file (File -> Save Page As), say, samplesources.opml.
3. Go to Habari Xenu -> Import/Export Feeds.
4. Select Import Feed and click Next.
5. Click the Browse button and select the OPML file you saved previously (samplesources.opml).
6. Click Finish.

Are there websites where I can search for news feeds?
Newsisfree and Syndic8 are some of the popular search engines for newsfeeds.

Feeds of popular services
Many online services provide RSS/Atom feeds to their content through a standard, easy to use format. Use the following table to add feeds of your favorite blogs (replacing username apropriately):