This is the fourth in a series of posts exploring the new functionality in Feeder 1.3.

Publishing Improvements

Feeder is now much more flexible about where and how you upload your feed, images and enclosure files.

• Feeder can upload different kinds of files to different servers when publishing your feed. To set default servers for different kinds of files, select the feed in the sidebar and choose File > Publish Settings from the menu and choose the servers to use for different kinds of files.
• All kinds of servers can now be created and edited in the Servers window. To see this choose View > Servers from the menu.
• Each server can have its own default locations for different kinds of files. These can be set in the File Locations tab of the Servers window.
• Default servers and locations can also be overridden on an individual basis for files such as enclosures and images. For enclosure files, click the Edit button next to the enclosure file’s name. For images, click on the artwork view and choose Upload Settings from the menu.
• After publishing your feed, Feeder can ping services such as iTunes, Yahoo and FeedBurner to notify them of changes to your feed. These can be set on a per-feed basis in the Ping Services section of the Settings tab in the Info drawer.
• You can create, remove and edit ping servers in Feeder’s Ping preferences panel. Choose Feeder > Preferences from the menu and click Ping.

This is the third in a series of posts exploring the new features in Feeder 1.3.

Media File Tagging

Feeder can tag audio and video files with values from your feed to match what iTunes does when it downloads podcast episodes. This ensures that everyone who receives your podcast, whether using iTunes or another application, has a consistent experience.

Feeder will also set the artwork on your media files using your feed’s artwork as a default.

The tagging changes happen automatically when you save an item in your feed that has a compatible enclosure file set to be uploaded. Feeder can tag files in MP3, M4A, M4V, MP4 and QuickTime movie formats.

• To have Feeder tag and upload a media file (or any kind of file), drag the file to the expanded Enclosure part of the item’s edit window.
• To fetch the appropriate tags from in a media file, click on the artwork box, a menu will be shown and choose Fetch Tags from File.
• You can also create new items with enclosures in your feed by dragging files onto the feed in the sidebar or to the list of items. If the file already contains tags, Feeder will pre-populate the item with with those tags.
• If you don’t want Feeder to automatically tag media files, you can switch this off in the preferences panel. Choose Preferences from the Feeder menu and click Podcast, then uncheck “Automatically Update Media File Tags”.

This is the second in a series of posts exploring the new features in Feeder 1.3.

Image Uploading

Feeder can upload an image for your feed, artwork for your podcast’s listing in the iTunes Music Store and shows a preview of these in the Info drawer.

• To have Feeder upload an image when the feed is published, drag an image file to the appropriate artwork view.
• Clicking on the artwork brings up a menu with a number of options. These vary slightly between the RSS and iTunes artwork views.
• There are restrictions on the maximum size and file format for both standard RSS and iTunes images. If the image is not the correct size or format, Feeder will create a resized version in JPEG format to upload when the feed is published.
  • The maximum size for an RSS image is fixed at 144 pixels wide by 400 pixels high.
  • The maximum size for iTunes images is 300 pixels square by default, but can be between 170 and 300 pixels to be valid. This can be set in Feeder’s Podcast preferences.
• For iTunes artwork, you can choose whether Feeder should crop the images to a square size or scale the image to fit. To do this, click on the iTunes artwork view and choose either Crop to Fit or Scale to Fit from the menu. Apple recommends using square images.
• If you already have an appropriate image on your web server, Feeder can use that too. Just click on the artwork view, choose Open from URL from the menu and enter the URL of the image.
• If you need the URL of an already published image for use in a podcast directory or web page, you can get this at any time by clicking on the artwork view and choosing Copy Image URL from the menu.
• Finally, you can customize where Feeder uploads the image and the name of the file on the server by clicking on the artwork view and choosing Upload Settings from the menu.

This is the first in a series of posts exploring the new functionality in Feeder 1.3. I promised these a little while ago. These tips will also appear in the Feeder Tips & Tricks feed, which can be found on the Feeder product pages.

I thought I’d start with the first thing you notice when running Feeder 1.3 – its updated user interface.

User Interface

The user interface changes in Feeder 1.3 are focused around getting more out of the space on your screen.

• The one-pixel splitter allows the sidebar to be completely hidden, which could be useful if you only manage a single feed. Show or hide the sidebar by choosing View > Show/Hide Sidebar from the menu.
• The preview in the main window has been redesigned to show more of the actual content for proof reading and the status bar now shows the link the mouse is hovering over in the preview (if any).
• There is now an Edit Item toolbar button for the Library window – some people asked for this. You will need to customise the toolbar to see it.
• Feeder now does syntax colouring for HTML in the edit windows. You can change the colour of the tags in Feeder’s Editor preferences.

The Info drawer has been split into three different tabs to separate what is in the feed from Feeder’s own settings and reduce visual clutter:

• The Standard tab shows fields for standard RSS 2.0 tags. Everything in this section is stored in the feed.
• The Extensions tab shows extensions to standard RSS, and everything here is also stored in the feed. The “iTunes Extensions” section that was in Feeder 1.2.x has now been split into two. The “iTunes” section shows everything that appears for your podcast’s listing in the iTunes Music Store. The “iTunes Information” section shows other tags that are not displayed, but used by the store.
• The Settings tab shows where the feed is kept on disk, and the feed’s publishing settings. These settings are stored in Feeder’s internal library.

I’ve set up a dedicated feed for tips and tricks on using Feeder. You can subscribe to the feed with this URL: http://reinventedsoftware.com/feeder/tips.xml and on the Feeder product page.

Initially the feed contains mostly updated versions of tips that have already been posted (and updated) on this blog. New tips will also be posted on this blog, although they may be in a more blog-friendly style to the content in the tips feed.

Over time these tips will cover all sorts of different areas, from cool features in Feeder you may not know about to help on performing specific tasks and in-depth looks at new functionality as it becomes available.

There are so many different things you can do with Feeder and so many different ways people want to actually achieve these things. Hopefully these tips will cover things the help files could never hope to address.

Feedback is always welcome, as are suggestions for new tips. Either leave a comment on the blog or get in touch. Thanks!