RSSOwl is a feed reader and a feed organizer with many options and users are able to customize the program and manage all aspects of their feeds through its interface. Provides useful options such as possibility to create folders and organize feeds in categories, set different options for each category of for each RSS feed within a category, search by keyword, set labels and highlight with different colors.
A powerful feature is filtering, you can set custom rules and behavior when feeds contain different keywords. The program can perform different actions once an article contains the keyword from your filtering rule, such as mark with color, play a sound etc.
This software is free and open source. It has an advanced search function, allows to set custom time for each category or feed regarding interval of auto refresh, includes multiple layouts and many other features.
1. Clean interface
The program has a clean workspace, without excessive buttons and menus. Although, there are many options and customizations available.
2. Group feeds
To have a higher level of readability and usability, the program allows to choose how to view the articles. You can group them by different criteria, such as author name, date etc.
3. Different layouts
Includes different types of layouts, articles can be expanded or collapsed by default, you need to try and find the most convenient layout for view.
4. Sticky markup
By pressing Sticky or choosing it from right click menu, depends what type of layout you have, allows to mark desired article as sticky; will be highlighted with a different background color and will be easier to identify it later. This is a feature that i like it very much.
5. Label with colors
There are available by default different labels to assign a different color to desired article. You can create custom labels with desired colors from Options. Again, i find it very useful to find or sort later, when you have a lot of feeds.
6. Custom automatically update for each feed
You can set a custom value for entire folder or for each feed separately regarding the time of auto update. If you are expecting important news, set the time to minimum, but if you don’t, set it to a bigger value. Setting a higher value or refreshing RSS feeds manually may be helpful to not slow down internet bandwidth or computer’s memory and processor.
7. Different layout for each feed or folder
The program allows to set a custom layout for each feed of folder with feeds. It may be useful to have a larger or expanded layout for feeds with images or small amount of content to read them directly in RSSOwl interface and a collapsed layout for feeds that will be open in browser.
8. Delete old feeds automatically
Is recommended to delete old feeds because if you have thousands of feeds, the program and the computer could work slower because RAM memory is overwhelmed. You can choose to delete feeds older than desired number of days.
9. Advanced search
The program allows to mark as sticky or to set labels to identify later your favorite feeds, but also includes an advanced search function.
10. Filters
Set keyword filters to mark with different labels or even to play a sound when you receive feeds with specific keywords.
11. Import or export feeds
Import feeds from other programs or export feeds from RSSOwl as file to keep them as backup or to import them on another computer.
- Download: http://www.filesriver.com/app/230/rssowl
- Visit website: http://www.rssowl.org
- Pros: filters mark with different colors custom auto refresh time
- Cons: maybe i would like to see more skins or designs for interface
- OS: Windows 8, Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit, Windows XP, Vista
- License: Freeware