6.1. Configure Mail's RSS Preferences

Mail has three new feed-related preferences, all found in the RSS preference pane. Before adding any feeds, take a moment to set these preferences to your liking:

• Default RSS Reader: When you click a link on a Web page to subscribe to an RSS feed (or when you click the RSS icon in Safari's address bar), the application shown in this menu will display that feed. Oddly, the default RSS reader in Leopard is still Safari, even though Mail is much better. Unless you have a favorite third-party RSS reader, choose Mail.

• Check for Updates: Choose the frequency with which Mail checks for new RSS articles. I suggest the shortest value, Every 30 Minutes. (If at any time you want to force an immediate update of all articles, click on the pop-up Action () menu at the bottom of Mail's Viewer window—or Control-click (right-click) on the feed or mailbox icon—and choose Update All RSS Feeds.)

• Remove Articles: Articles from RSS feeds sometimes accumulate rather quickly. Because of the fleeting nature of most RSS posts, it makes sense to let Mail delete them every so often in order to save disk space (and after all, you can usually return to a feed's Web site to read old posts if you wish). If you subscribe to lots of high-traffic feeds, choose After One Day to keep from being overwhelmed with unread (or simply outdated) posts. Otherwise, stick with After One Week; the longer periods make little sense.