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What better to do with an OPML weblog than to point to interesting news about OPML developments? I like it. ;-> Blog monogamy has gone right out the window. What is OPML? OPML stands for Outline Processor Markup Language. OPML tags define an outline using XML -- which other programs can read and do useful things with, like take the output from your outliner and make an OPML based blog -- or make it easy for many people to maintain a directory, each maintaining their little part of the big "tree." The iPodder.org podcast directory is based on OPML. Want to know more about OPML? Go to OPML.org and read about it. Almost forgot. Most blogrolls, and lists of RSS subscriptions, are written in OPML. Blogrolling.com will export your blogroll in OPML for you, and RSS aggregators like Bloglines (and many others) import and export your list of RSS subscriptions in OPML. This is very important if you use an RSS reader to read blogs, because it means that you're not locked in -- you can take your subscriptions and use a new tool anytime you want. It makes me proud to think that most RSS aggregator developers are confident enough not to go after lock-in. Okay, already! I want to make my own outlines! Well, why didn't you say so? Go here and download the OPML editor for Windows. It's free (and it's what I'm using to make this weblog. Free Harry Truman with every copy. It's amazing how easy this is. All the posts on this page I edited in the OPML Outliner in one window -- if I want a new post, I just hit "Return." Reorder the posts? Drag and drop. Cooooooool. Eric Kidd has made an Extremely Beta Installer for the OPML outliner. Any relation to iPodder developer Garth Kidd? The Kidds are all right. Make a blog in OPML: Download and install the OPML editor. Startup the app, register for an account, go to Community>Your OPML Weblog> Open Today's Outline. Type away. Hit Save. Your blog at http://blogs.opml.org/yourusername/. Voila! Come hang out with us at the OPML Newbies list. Beginner's mind is beautiful. Get it while you can. Just changed the header graphic. Tried a picture of my husband, but it was way too big. No problem, I have a supply of pretrimmed header graphics from my community news site H2otown. The header graphics on H2otown were directly inspired by Scripting News. I wish it were as easy to change header graphics on my Drupal-based site as it is here. How do I do it? In the OPML editor, choose Community> Your OPML Weblog> Choose header graphic. Browse to an image on your machine. I try to trim my header graphics to 720X200 pixels in a photo editing program. Plans. I'm planning on building some text and video documentation for the OPML Editor much like the ones I contributed to the iPodder podcast download client project. Here's the iPodder manual, and here's a video intro to podcasting and iPodder called Four Minutes about Podcasting. Questions: I wrote the iPodder manual in a format called ReStructured Text, which has the advantage of being able to automatically generate tables of contents and other useful features for online docs. Should I go with this? Break it down into blog posts? Write the documentation itself in OPML? Having so many choices is what my mother would call A High Class of Problem. ;-> More questions: I made Four Minutes About Podcasting after several months of using iPodder and grokking podcasts. I'm not sure I have enough experience with OPML to be smart and funny about it yet. Should I go with a rough and ready screencast of the basics in the meantime? |
Last modified: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 9:25 PM.
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