OT: RSS - how to import/export subscriptions?

[Terry Pinnell]

I've just started trying a few RSS Readers. An immediate requirement
is to be able to import and export the 'feeds' (subscriptions) between
them, so that I don't have to tediously (and inaccurately) duplicate
entries. How do you go about that in general please?

I realise that the detailed steps will vary with each program. But I
was hoping there would be a 'standard'.

As an example, right now I'm trying NewzCrawler. I highlight a channel
in its Channel Tree, say 'BBC News|UK'. The File>Export menu then
invites me to export the 'folder' 'BBC News'. Is 'folder' a general
term, or unique to NewzCrawler? Does it mean all 4 channels under 'BBC
News' will be exported, not just the channel I highlighted? (BTW the
default filename in the Save dialog is set to the last channel saved,
regardless, which seems odd; I'd have expected it to deafult to the
name of the channel, or 'folder'?)

Anyway, my main question is: what do I do to import the resulting .ncw
file into another RSS Reader? Or vice versa. The file is not in plain
ASCII as I'd assumed. Presumably proprietary to NewzCrawler? I'm a
complete RSS novice (started googling yesterday morning!) but didn't I
read that there is a format called OPML for transferring feeds? I
assume that would look like HTML, and this .ncw file ceratinly
doesn't.

I've registered in the NewzCrawler forum and posted there, but any
advice meanwhile would be appreciated please.

Finally, I was surprised that I could find no newsgroups with 'RSS.'
in their names. I gather this is a technology that's well underway, so
I'd have expected several dedicated NGs.

 

[Malke]

I've just started trying a few RSS Readers. An immediate requirement
is to be able to import and export the 'feeds' (subscriptions) between
them, so that I don't have to tediously (and inaccurately) duplicate
entries. How do you go about that in general please?

I realise that the detailed steps will vary with each program. But I
was hoping there would be a 'standard'.

AFAIK there is no standard way to import/export data between
applications. The import/export function has to be written into the
program by the coders regardless of the type of program. This is not a
Windows - or any operating system - issue. I'm afraid you'll have to
RTFM for each program you want to use and see how it handles
subscriptions.

Malke