There are three sections on the 'Items' tab: the item button bar, the available items listbox, and the items data entry area.
Items button bar
The items button bar contains buttons for the most commonly used items operations. From left to right the buttons are: New Item, Clone Item, Delete Item, Move Item Up, Move Item Down, WYSIWYG Description Editor, View Source, and Preferences. All these functions (and a few more) are also available from the main menu.
Available items list box
All the items that belonging to the current feed are listed on the left of the Items screen. Click on an item in the list to make it active for editing.
Data entry area
The data entry areas is on the right hand side of the 'Items' tab.
The 'Required' tab contains fields that must be filled in for each item.
| · | Title: Each item in a feed must have a unique title.
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| · | Description: A brief summary of the item is also required.
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| · | Link: Typically readers display the summary along with a 'Read more...' link that takes you to the full text. Type the Web location of the full text here.
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| · | Pub Date: The publication date of a new item alerts readers that there is new content in your feed to download.
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The 'Optional' tab contains several additional fields that you may choose to also include in the current feed item.
| · | If you are listed in an RSS directory list the category your item falls in and the domain of the directory.
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| · | GUID: The Global unique Identifier is a text string that uniquely identifies the item. Some readers use it to determine whether the item is new.
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| · | Source: This fields identifies the source of the item if it was obtained from another feed.
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| · | Enclosure: If a file is to be included with this item, it is listed here.
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| · | Author: The e-mail address of the author of the item may be listed here.
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| · | Comments: The URL of a Web page with comments about this item may be specified.
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The 'Advanced' tab is where you may enter optional comments about the specific item.
Extensions Tab
If any extension have been chosen for the current feed, the 'Extensions' tab will appear. Under the Extensions tab you will be able to enter data for each of the namespace extensions you have chosen to use.
Advanced Tab
The 'Advanced' tab allows you to enter XML comments for each of your items. XML comments will exit in the raw XML code of your feed, but is typically not visible by subscribers.
Special Features on the Items Tab:
Live spell checking
The 'Title' and 'Description' fields are enabled with live spell checking. Unrecognized words will automatically be underlined, as you type. You can right-click on any underlined word for spelling suggestions, or to add it to the dictionary.
WYSIWYG Description HTML editor
HTML tags can be included in the description fields of RSS feeds. This allows some formatting of the description text, resulting in a more professional looking feed. Enter HTML tags manually in the 'Description' field, or use FeedForAll's WYSIWYG HTML editor that makes this a lot easier. To start the editor, double-click inside the 'Description' text box, click on the HTML Editor button in the button bar, or choose 'HTML Editor' from the 'Tools' menu.
Pub Date date and time pickers
Item dates are defined in a specific format the RSS specification. FeedForAll makes entering dates easy using date and time pickers. Click on the calendar button to the right of the Pub Date field to choose a date from a calendar.
Click on the button to the right of the time to set a new time.
Item Smart Dates
Many RSS feed publishers schedule when their new content is published. Rather than entering the next publication date manually, the Smart Date button can be programmed to automatically advance the Pub Date to the next desired publish date. The Smart Date button is the one to the far right of the Pub Date field. It has an image of a calendar with a wand over it. The default behavior of the Smart Date button is to enter the current date and time into the Pub Date field. You can program the Smart Date button to enter a more useful date and time, in FeedForAll's 'Preferences' screen.
Help!
There are many fields that may be used in an RSS item. It may not be obvious from a field's name what data should be entered into them. FeedForAll supports a "What's This" help function that can help you out here. Click the icon in the top right corner of the Feeds tab and your mouse pointer will change to an arrow with a question mark. Click an item in the Feeds tab to display a help window explaining the purpose of the field. "What's This" also works on other features of the screen including button bar buttons.