How to edit subscription lists with the OPML Editor 

This is an update of a HowTo that was published on the OPML Editor support site.

A subscription list is an OPML document that contains a list of feeds.

It's a popular format mostly used to exchange subscriptions between RSS feed readers and aggregators.

Opening or creating a subscription list 

One way to create a subscription list is to export an OPML document from your feed reader and open it in the OPML Editor, exactly the same way you'd open a document in a word processor or a spreadsheet.

You can choose the Open command from the File menu, or drag and drop the file icon on the OPML Editor application icon.

To create a new one, choose New from the File menu, enter the feeds you want to subscribe to and save the file to disk.

As its name implies, the OPML Editor is designed to edit OPML files. It opens and saves them the way any application would open and save its native file type.

In addition, you can use the Open URL command in the File menu to open an OPML file over the net, if you know its address.

Editing a subscription list 

To add a feed to a list, press Return to create a new headline, then choose Add Feed from the right-click menu.

Enter the URL of the feed and click OK. After a few seconds the title of the feed will appear in the headline.

You can even double-click the headline to see the headlines in the feed, and click on those to read the articles (in other words, the OPML Editor is also a simple feed reader).

Formats supported: All flavors of RSS and Atom.

When you're ready, save the OPML file. From there you can import it into a feed reader, or use it as a reading list. Many new applications for OPML subscription lists are coming online these days! :-)

Technical info 

The OPML 2.0 spec explains the underlying format for subscription lists, if you're implementing a feed reader or aggregator, you'll need to understand this.