FeedTicker
Gee!
First off, if you have any problems that the documents here can't help you with, please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, problems, bugs or proposed new features.
Also check out the Frequently Asked Questions page.
- Installing FeedTicker
- Running FeedTicker
- FeedTicker Preferences
- Feed Management
- Info Windows
- Release Notes
- Bug Fixes
Installing FeedTicker
The FeedTicker download consists of a compressed disk image file (DMG). Double-clicking the file will mount the disk. Contained within is the file FeedTicker with with icon of a bell jar tickertape machine. Drag this file to your Applications directory or wherever you would like to keep it.
If you have the previous version of FeedTicker installed you must uninstall it first. Make sure FeedTicker is not running. Open System Preferences. Control-click or right-click on the FeedTicker icon located in the "other" section. Select the option that appears that says Remove "FeedTicker" Preference Pane. After that go into the Accounts preference pane and click on Startup Items. If FeedTicker appears in that list select it with the mouse and press the minus button in the window.
Running FeedTicker
Double-clicking the FeedTicker application will start the ticker going. If the feeds that you have provided are working feeds on the web and your internet connection is up you should see subjects taken from your feed scroll past your screen somewhere on your desktop. If this is the first time you've run FeedTicker, it will appear somewhere in the bottom 1/10th of the screen (maybe under your dock if you've set the dock large enough!).
News entries that scroll past in the FeedTicker can be clicked on; this will open the relevant page within the user's default browser. The idea is that the FeedTicker will run all the time and any news items that piques the user's interest will be clicked on for further investigation. Clicking on title entries will open up the main page the Feed is from.
Control-clicking or right-clicking on an entry will open up an information window containing a description about the entry. Info Windows are described in more detail in the Info Windows section.
Control-clicking or right-clicking on a feed title will bring up a pop-up menu containing names of all of the entries associated with the feed. Selecting and entry will open it in your browser.
You can drag FeedTicker to anywhere on the screen by clicking and holding your mouse button over a part of the application that is not covered in text. If you are running multiple monitors you can drag the ticker to another monitor. If the monitors are different sizes FeedTicker will resize when it is released from the drag.
FeedTicker Preferences
A window to manipulate FeedTicker's settings can be reached in many different ways. When control-clicking or left-clicking on the FeedTicker wherever there isn't any text a menu will appear allowing you to quit the application or open the preferences window. The preferences window can also be opened by using the hot key command-, (command-comma). In addition, if you are running FeedTicker with the application icon, you can select the Preferences menu item from the main application menu or control-click or right-click on the application icon in the Dock.
The preferences window has three tabs or panes; the Ticker tab, the Feeds tab and the Info Window tab. The Feeds tab is described in the Feed Management section. The Info Window tab is described in the Info Windows section.
The Ticker tab contains controls for manipulating the way FeedTicker works in general. The changes you make while the FeedTicker is running are propagated in real time. For instance, if you change the background color using the Background color well, the background color of the running application will also change nearly immediately; there is no need for a "restart".
The Scroll Speed slider effects the speed that entries slide across the screen.
The Font button allows the user to use the standard font selection window to set which font the FeedTicker will use for its display. The text area adjacent the button will show the current selection. Close the font selection window by pressing the red close button located in its upper-left corner.
The Text Color and Background color wells manipulate foreground text color and background color respectively. Clicking on one of the wells brings up the standard color picker window. Transparencies are allowed! FeedTicker defaults to having black text on a transparent green background. Close the Color Picker by pressing the red close button located in its upper-left corner.
The Hide Application Icon checkbox will cause the FeedTicker's icon to not appear in the dock. This also disables the application menu. With this enabled quitting FeedTicker or gaining access to the preference pane can be achieved by control-clicking or right-clicking on the ticker on a place without any text; a pop-up menu will appear with these options. As it says in the preferences, this option will only take effect after FeedTicker has been restarted.
The Loop Entries checkbox specifies whether FeedTicker should throw out old entries after they've scrolled by once or move them back to the end of the queue for continuous scrolling. If the Loop Entries checkbox is selected, entries will be scrolled over and over again until a new query to the RSS URL says that the entry doesn't exist any more; it has been replaced by new items. These new items will be scrolled past the screen over and over again until the they grow stale themselves. If the Loop Entries checkbox is not selected, the Feed's entries will only be scrolled by once and never again. Only fresh news will be shown.
The Float on Top checkbox, when checked, makes the FeedTicker float on top of every window. As of the current implementation it still captures mouse clicks so be careful where you place it. If the checkbox is unchecked the FeedTicker will run normally on the desktop under all windows and icons.
When the New Entry Sound checkbox is checked, a alert sound somewhat like the sound of an actual ticker tape machine (well a typewriter anyway) will be played notifying that new Entries have been received. This audible cue is very helpful when not using looped entries, defined above.
If the Feed Titles checkbox is checked, an entry will precede all entries belonging to a single feed proclaiming the name of the Feed. The entry will have horizontal bars on each side to show that it's the title. These title entries will stop on the left side of the screen while all of its children entries continue to scroll past beneath it. Clicking on the title will open the main page where the Feed is downloaded from. It's a cool effect that helps when you're dealing with multiple feeds.
Feed Management
The Feeds tab of the preferences window shows a list of the Feed URLs that FeedTicker will query every half hour. If you have registered FeedTicker, you may add and delete new Feeds, otherwise you may only modify the existing feed. In other words, unregistered users only get to play with one feed at a time.
To modify an existing feed URL, double click on its entry in the list. This will allow text editing of the URL. When complete, press your return key. The changes to the URL will become evident but not necessarily right away; any entries queued up to scroll pass will be displayed first.
To add a feed press the New button. An additional entry will appear in the list highlighted and ready for input. The "http://" will already be provided. After you have completed your changes press the return key. Additional entries from the URL should appear if the URL contains a proper RSS feed.
Instead of typing URLs in a new feed entry an easier solution is to drag and drop feed URLs into the feed list or onto the FeedTicker itself. Hold down your mouse button on a link to an RSS feed in your browser and simply drag it over the FeedTicker. A plus icon will appear notifying you that the FeedTicker can accept the URL. Dragging highlighted text of a URL in the form of "http://..." will also work. The URL will appear on the bottom of the feed list. Pressing the New button in the Feeds tab of the preferences window is not necessary. This functionality does not work for unregistered users because they can only use one feed at a time.
Try it with this link pointing to the Lloyd's Lounge RSS feed.
Feeds in the feed list can be reordered by dragging their entries up and down the list. The effects of this operation may not be apparent right away because of entry queuing.
To remove a feed select the soon-to-be-disposed-of feed in the list with a single click of the mouse and press the Delete button. The selected feed will disappear from the list. This operation my not be immediately apparent; entries scrolling past that belong to the deleted feed will not be effected.
Feeds that are not working correctly will show up in the feed list with red text. The Feed may contain a URL that does not point to a valid RSS feed or the RSS feed's server is down or there may be any other number of network failures that would cause the FeedTicker to mark the feed this way. A feed that doesn't work correctly will not produce entries.
Info Windows
Info windows are cool looking round cornered windows that contain information about a given entry scrolling in the FeedTicker. An info window can be opened by control-clicking or right-clicking on an entry in the FeedTicker.
The info window's title contains the name of the feed and the name of the entry. The info window's text comes from the description node of the entry in the RSS feed. The text is generally a shortened version of the entry's main text or the full main text. The bottom of the info window shows the index number of the entry in the feed and how many total entries currently exist in the feed. E.g. 3 of 10.
Info windows can be traversed by clicking the left and right arrows. Pressing the right arrow will show the info window of the next entry in the list, likewise pressing the left arrow will show the info window of the previous entry in the list. When reaching the end of the entries of a Feed in either direction, continued key presses will carry on the windows into the next Feed or wrap to the beginning or end of the feed list. Spacebar, return or the down arrow will open the currently shown entry in the browser. Hitting escape or clicking anywhere besides the FeedTicker will close the window.
The Info Window tab in the preferences window contains controls that allow you to manipulate the way the info windows work.
The radio buttons in the upper-left-hand corner control the color scheme of the info windows. Use Default Colors selection sets the color scheme to default; white text on a translucent black background. Use Ticker Colors selection sets the color scheme to the same colors that were defined for the ticker itself under the Ticker tab. This is the best way to achieve a uniform color scheme. The Define Colors... selection reveals Text Color and Background Color color wells which manipulate foreground text color and background color respectively. Clicking on one of the wells brings up the standard color picker window. Transparencies are allowed here as well. Close the Color Picker by pressing the red close button located in its upper-left corner.
The Font button allows the user to use the standard font selection window to set which font the info window will use for its display. The text area beside the button will show the current selection. Close the font selection window by pressing the red close button located in its upper-left corner.
The Unnessary Animation checkbox toggles between enabling and disabling the info window's transition animations. It is enabled by default but you can disable it here if the animations drive you buggy.
Release Notes : Version 2.0
- Processor usage has been reduced.
- Has been restructured as a standard application instead of a preference pane.
- The white dotted border that appeared around the application when the preference pane was open has been removed.
- Right-clicking on an entry opens a window containing an entry description.
- Entry description "info windows" can be traversed by using the left and right arrow keys.
- Right-clicking on a title entry reveals a pop-up menu containing the feed's entries.
- Right-clicking on the ticker opens a pop-up menu with options to open the preferences or quit the application.
- RSS URL Drag-and-drop onto the application and the feed list has been added.
- Re-ordering of RSS feeds within the feed list by drag-and-drop.
- Dragging between multiple monitors is allowed
- The application icon can be toggled.
- The application's dock icon's menu can open the preferences.
- Slide in style startup and shutdown animations.
Bug Fixes : Version 2.0.1
- Title menu not appearing on a left-click has been fixed.
- Empty or missing title no longer causes a feed to break.
Bug Fixes : Version 2.0.2
- Preferences window disappearing when app not focused fixed.
- Server-side redirects no longer causes feed to break.
- Copy, Cut and Paste in Preferences has been fixed.
- Non-broken feeds appearing in red on startup has been fixed.
- Preferences window can be closed by Command-W.
- Menu has been expanded.
Bug Fixes : Version 2.0.3
- Memory reclaimation problem causing Feedticker to lock up has been fixed.
- Title Entry causing smudges on entries on the right side of the ticker has been fixed.
Bug Fixes : Version 2.0.4
- FeedTicker is now a Universal Binary.
- Empty feed titles will no longer cause Feedticker to lock up.
- Feeds with multi-lined titles (like Yahoo News) no longer render oddly.
- A bug in title's hashing function will no longer cause crashes for 10.3 users.
- Fix for users having problems dragging to a left monitor.
Bug Fixes : Version 2.0.5
- FeedTicker is now compatible with OS X version 10.5 (Leopard).
FEEDTICKER COPYRIGHT 2004-2008 DOUGLAS MCINNES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.