Tips, tricks, tools, and techniques for Microsoft Office

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary (depending on whom you talk to). It allows you to read content from a variety of sources (including The Office Letter), all from within a standalone reader (or integrated as a separate folder in Outlook). This syndicated content -- news headlines, new upgrade or patch announcements, or (as in the case of Office Letter), tips and tricks -- is available without using your e-mail client. Many users find it easier to manage individual stories or announcements in a special RSS reader than it is to organize information from e-mails.

The Office Letter provides an RSS feed (it's really not much more than a specialized XML file, which is similar to an HTML file but with stricter requirements). You tell your RSS reader that you want to subscribe to this feed and in most cases you provide the URL for that feed. Your RSS reader then polls all the sites you've defined looking for the latest feeds; it does its polling at set time intervals (typically every hour) to look for new stories withinin these feeds. The Office Letter feed is updated once a week (on Sunday); polling it every hour doesn't hurt anything -- you just won't find anything updated.

For more information on accessing our RSS feed from several online sites and free programs, visit

   http://www.officeletter.com/usingrss.html

When asked for the URL of the Office Letter RSS feed, use this URL:

For Webmasters - Put Our Tips on Your Site

You can add Office Letter headlines and story summaries to your Web site. Use this pointer to create a simple, customized Javascript that you can place on your Web page. Use the URL above (shown in red) as the Custom Feed URL.

You can create a more complex, customized Javascript using this link.

Another alternative is to use the following code which we created for you. It uses the same FeedSweep service as the two options above and displays the Office Letter RSS feed using a simple black, white, and blue format.

Place the following script code on your site:

<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://feedsweep.com/products/feedsweep/producer.aspx?
feeds=http%3a%2f%2fwww.officeletter.com%2ftolrss.xml&
linecolor=%23B0E0E6&backgroundcolor=%23FFFFFF&
headercolor=%23000000&datecolor=%23336699&
titlecolor=%23000000&textcolor=%23333333">
</script>