How to Subscribe to News Feeds and Blogs in Thunderbird

RSS is a protocol used by websites that sends a message to subscribers whenever the website is updated. (This stream of updates from a website is commonly called a "news feed" or "RSS feed".) RSS feeds are commonly used by blogs, but more traditional websites use RSS as well. When you subscribe to a site's RSS feed, updates are automatically delivered to your news reader (for example, Thunderbird) which eliminates the need to check each website individually for new content.

When you use Thunderbird to handle your RSS feeds, you can use the same format and tools that your are familiar with from managing your email messages.

Table of Contents

Step 1: Create an RSS Account

Step 2: Subscribe to Feeds

Step 3: Read and Manage RSS Feeds

           To read a feed

           To organize your feeds

Step 1: Create an RSS Account

First you must create an account in Thunderbird for your RSS feeds.

1. In the Menu Bar, click File | New | Other Accounts. The Account Wizard           window appears.

2. Select Blogs & News Feeds, then click Next.

3. Type a name for your RSS account in the Account Name box, then click             Next.

4. Click Finish. Your new account will now appear in Thunderbird's folder pane.

Step 2: Subscribe to Feeds

Next, choose the feeds you want to subscribe to.

1. Use your web browser to open a website that you want to subscribe to. Most media sites and blogs that are regularly updated have RSS feeds.

2. Look for an RSS icon or text link on the site. On most sites the RSS link appears at the bottom or on the side of the home page.

rss icon on website

3. Right-click on the RSS link and copy the link’s address. (If you use Mozilla Firefox, click “Copy Link Location” on the context menu. If you use Google Chrome, click “Copy link address”.)

NOTE: On some large websites, the home page’s RSS hyperlink is not a feed itself, but a link to a set of feeds provided by the site. For example, a major media site may have different feeds for its news, sports and entertainment sections. Just click the RSS icon on the home page, then perform Step 3 on the page that hosts all the site’s feeds.

4. In Thunderbird, click your RSS account name in the folders pane.

5. Click Manage subscriptions.

6. In the Feed URL box, right-click and paste the link address from the website.

7. Click Add. Your newly subscribed feed now appears under your RSS account folder in the folder pane.

Step 3: Read and Manage RSS Feeds

Reading and managing your RSS feeds is as easy as using your email in Thunderbird.

To read a feed

1. Click Get Mail to download all the newest feed messages, along with your regular email messages.

2. In the folder pane, click on the subscribed feed whose content you want to read. A list of unread messages from the feed appears in the message list pane.

3. Click on a message in the message list.

4. Read the article in the message body. If you’d like to see the article on the website, click the link in the message header next to Website.

NOTE: If your message displays as an article summary rather than the full article, look for these two options in Thunderbird:                                        

1. Select a message from the message list, then click View | Feed Message Body As, then select Web Page.

2. In Tools | Account Settings, select the name of your RSS account and uncheck "By default, show the article summary instead of loading the web page."

To organize your feeds

You can create email-style folders to group individual feeds:

1. Click on your RSS feeds account name to select it.

2. Click File | New | Folder. The New Folder dialog box appears.

3. Type a name for your new folder, then click Create Folder.

NOTE: To create subfolders of your folders, first select the folder you want as the parent folder, then click File | New | Subfolder.

Alternatively, you can organize your feeds by creating additional RSS accounts. Just repeat Step 1: Create for every account you want to create, giving each one a different name.

Tips

• To quickly mark a feed's messages as all read, so they no longer appear in bold type, press Shift + C while the feed is selected.
• For options on how often Thunderbird checks for new feed messages and deletes old ones, click on Tools | Account Settings, then click on the name of your feeds account. Click on Disc Space below your account name for more options.
• Use the Quick Filter toolbar to save time if you're getting a lot of messages from a feed.