I know we’re all dealing with the loss of Google Reader in our own way. I’m still using the Next button until it fails me, but I’ve also set up a contingency plan for the day when my reader is no longer.
There’s a lot of talk about Feedly vs. Bloglovin’, vs The Old Reader, and I’m a Feedly convert. Sarah from Whoorl wrote a
great post about how to use Feedly, and you should definitely check out her tips for getting started. But what I really wanted was for my new reader to look like my old reader. I know Feedly is pretty and has a lot of great options, but I’m only interested in those options that give me a familiar experience.
First of all, set up your Feedly account while Google Reader is still around, because you can import your feeds. They sync in real time, so you can use them interchangeably for the time being, which I have been doing for a while, mostly out of habit (and for the love of than darn Next button.)
Once you’re in, do not be overwhelmed if your start screen looks like this:
When I first started using Feedly, I didn’t like it. This isn’t the way I think when I’m in my reader. I like a nice list, easy to navigate. This is pretty, but not working for me.
The first thing you want to do is switch to list view.
It’s already better, right?
To avoid having to to make this change every time, you’re going to want to change your default settings, so click on the Prefs button to change you options.
The first two options are the ones you’re going to want to change. For start page select “All” and for Default View select “Titles Only.” The rest of the options are totally up to you.
Finally, for the ultimate in the Google Reader experience, you might want to be able to see a list of all of the blogs you subscribe to along the side. Easy! Click the small arrow next to the category and you’ll see the list. Within the Prefs screen, you can choose to hide those blogs that don’t have any unread content, which is what I do.
Now, for the app. A lot of people really liked
The Old Reader, because it was already the most similar to Google Reader. I didn’t like it because it doesn’t have an app yet, and I do of ton of my blog reading via my phone or iPad.
When you open the app, you’re probably going to get magazine view again. Simply click the three stacked boxes icon to get the display options, then choose list view.
Now that you have a nice clean list, you need to change your default settings so that this is what you’ll see every time you open the app. Click on the three bars to open up addition options. This is also how you can view the list of everything that you subscribe to by clicking the arrow next to the category. For now, choose Settings.
Choose Default View, and then Title Only.
And you’re done! The next best thing to Google Reader without any of the added new things for those of us who like things to remain the same forever and ever, amen.
