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Enclosures and Podcasts

What is podcasting?

It’s another name for enclosures. Feeds may include special links to files such as mp3s, movies, and so on.

The word podcasting usually refers to audio files that are downloaded and automatically sent to iTunes—and from there get sent to your iPod. (But you don’t have to have an iPod to listen to podcasts.)

How it works in NetNewsWire

NetNewsWire tells you when a news item has an enclosure. It lets you know where it came from, how big it is, and what kind of enclosure it is.

If you want to download the enclosure, click the Download button. If it’s an audio file, you can download it and send it to iTunes. Click the Download to iTunes button.

But of course you might like NetNewsWire to download enclosures and podcasts automatically...

How to download automatically

Choose NetNewsWire > Preferences, then click on the Downloading icon.

Click on the Enclosures tab and set your preferences for downloading enclosures.

To tell NetNewsWire how to send podcasts to iTunes, click the iTunes tab. You can set a playlist and genre and tell NetNewsWire whether or not to delete files after sending them to iTunes.

NetNewsWire’s downloads folder is set to be the same as it is for Safari, but you can change it: click on the Downloads Folder tab and change it if you want to.

NetNewsWire will then automatically download enclosures according to your settings. (It doesn’t go through and download all the enclosures it already knows about, though—since that could be crazy, you might have dozens or hundreds. It also doesn’t automatically download enclosures when you subscribe to a new feed).

Per-feed and per-group settings

You can set automatic-download preferences on a per-feed and per-group basis.

Select a group or subscription in the subscriptions list, then choose Window > Info.

Expand the Enclosures & Podcasts section, then set your preferences for that subscription.

Settings for a group apply to all the subscriptions in a group. Individual subscriptions inside a group can also have custom settings.

Tip: create a smart list to show all your enclosures

If you want to see all your news items that contain enclosures, here’s how:

1. Choose File > New Smart List....
2. Give it a name like “Enclosures.”
3. Click on the popup in the first rule and choose Enclosure URL.
4. Type a / in the text field. (Since that will match any URL.) Then click the OK button.

How to find more podcasts

The Sites Drawer includes a new category called Podcasts.

Many more podcasts are listed in the directory at iPodder.org. (You can open that directory any time—in NetNewsWire, choose Help > Find More Feeds > iPodder.)