Instant Help

From N-wiki

Newsplorer uses XML data streams provided by websites to grab news and other information (like blogs) from the internet. The XML format is called RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication (or Rich Site Summary) and allows websites to publish a condensed view of their content. This view is updated regulary to reflect the most recent updated on the website. Newsplorer is using these resources and display them on its interface. This help section explains the main functionalities but also features not visible from the first run.

User interface

All news sources are grouped by category and you will notice that the order in which you have provisioned them using the Configuration dialog is preserved when Newsplorer gets the news from the internet. The rolling ticker groups all news by category as well, so you won't get lost browsing through the headlines.
Each headline has a news description (if available) and you can see it as a tooltip box by positioning the mouse cursor over that headline. If you want to open the news item, just click on the headline and the default browser will open and open the new item. Periodically, Newsplorer queries the news sources for news. New headlines are displayed in bold in the news area. Aslo, each time a new headline is detected, a notification dialog appears above the tray area. The popup is clickable and a browser window opens just as when you clicked on the headline in the news ticker area . The headline description is also available as a tooltip dialog if you position the mouse cursor over the popup dialog.
Hint: The popup dialog will not dissapear as long as the mouse cursor is over it.
You can disable the popup dialog by un-selecting "Show News Popup" menu item.

Buttons

"Pause/Play": does what is expected to do, stops and restarts the ticker.
"Jump To...": enables you to jump to the news sources. After a jump, the ticker will show the first headline of that news feed.

"Refresh All": initiates a news refresh. If a refresh is in progress, this command is ignored.
Hint:If you click with the mouse over the net traffic status area (the blinking lights) a tooltip dialog will show a tooltip containing the summary of what happened during the last news refresh and the refresh time.

News Sources

Selecting the right news sources is a fine art. Since Newsplorer does not have any limitations in terms of the number of news sources, you may be tempted to add as many sources as you can. This approach can prove counter-productive as it will bombard your desktop with a wealth of information that is dificult to filter. By using the grouping by category feature that Newsplorer provides, you can structure the information in a more meaningful way. And remember, keep the number of news sources manageable.
You can find the news source management section in Configuration->News Sources

Shortcuts

Ctrl-Shift-Z Hides/Shows the main dialog
Ctrl-Shift-X Enables/Disables the popup news tray notification dialog