How it works
Alertle is built around the core concept of feedpacks.
Feedpacks are basically folders which contain various similar feeds(websites) in them. For example, the Tech feedpack would contain various tech-related feeds like Slashdot, Digg, Techmeme, TechCrunch, and so on.
When you click on a feedpack, its website icons and their headlines get displayed. You can then click on any of the displayed headlines to read it in full in the reading pane.
Feedpacks
The top row of tabs displays the feedpacks. A selected feedpack has a blue highlight and its list of feeds and other content is displayed.
Home is the default feedpack. Whenever you log in to Alertle, Home is displayed by default. You can add / remove feeds from it, but it cannot be renamed / deleted.
In Customize, you can create more feedpacks, add feeds to them and share with other Alertle users or subscribe to other shared feedpacks. Several interesting feedpacks are added to your account upon sign-up (which can be removed in the Customize section) and your Home feedpack is pre-filled with some interesting feeds.
Website icons
The various feeds in a feedpack are represented by their icons, just below the top feedpack row.
You can click on an icon to view the updates from that particular feed/website. This is quite similar to how your desktop icons work and look like. Also, if a feed doesn't provide its own logo, then Alertle uses the default orange RSS icon to denote it.
Headlines
These are the updates from either a specific feed or from the entire feedpack and are located in the bottom left half of the screen. They are arranged by date and time, with the newest displayed first. A selected headline has a yellow highlight and its details are shown in the panel to its right.
Following headline-related controls are available:
| Alpha | Use this button to return to the first page of headlines. |
| Sigma | Use this button to get a combined list of updates from all the feeds in that feedpack. For example, sigma view in the Tech feedpack would display combined headlines from feeds like Slashdot, Digg, Techmeme, TechCrunch, etc. This is very useful and is like reading a newspaper on a very specific topic. It gives you a wide-ranging perspective on what's going on around the Web. When a feedpack tab is clicked, sigma view is on by default. If you click on a specific feed, it turns off and you will need to press the sigma button again to switch it on. |
| Autoplay™ | Autoplay™ enables you to automatically scroll through the article headlines without any clicking. Starting it is easy: Select your preferred speed on the slider (right next to the Autoplay button) for the amount of time each headline should get focus for and press the Autoplay button. The different speed options available are 2s, 5s (default), 20s, 1 min. and 2 min. Autoplay stops if the button is pressed again. |
| Prev/Next | Clicking on the previous / next arrow displays the previous / next page of headlines. |
Reading pane
When a headline has focus (the yellow highlight), its content is displayed to its right in the reading pane. The content is not modified by Alertle in any way and is displayed as it was provided by the feed. Besides text, many articles contain images, videos, ads and links to post the article to various sites like Digg, Facebook, etc. All links in an article open in a new window upon clicking.
Following article-related control is available:
| Link | Clicking on this will open the article in its source website in a new window |
