TUAW Tip: endo's keyboard shortcuts rock
Hi, my name is David Chartier, and I'm an RSS-aholic.
[your collective response: Hi David]
The last time I refreshed my newsreader was... well, probably a minute or two ago, and then 30 minutes before that. You see, I'm obsessed with news, and I've been using some sort of a newsreader for around three or four years now. Since I began writing for TUAW and Download Squad, I've probably tossed my OPML (an exported list of your RSS feeds) into more newsreaders than I can imagine, and one of my greatest loves has always been Adriaan Tijsseling's endo, which we've mentioned a few times before on TUAW. While I typically use NetNewsWire as my main reader, I'm giving endo a thorough run-through again as it has really matured into a great, stable product, and it has a lot of pleasant surprises and unique features that make sifting through large amounts of feeds and headlines a pleasure. In fact, with how well things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if endo upset my newsreader balance, at least for my regular reading. See the rest of the post to find out why...
While I could go on and on about all of endo's hidden gems, I'd like to highlight one of my favorite fundamental necessities of any app: keyboard shortcuts. If you ask me, an app is useless without a very healthy dose of keyboard shortcuts, and endo fortunately passes this qualification with flying colors. To find the main batch of shortcut goodies, you can of course always peruse the menus to find them on your own, or simply open endo's Help file and go to "What's hot in endo?" from its main screen, then click on the keyboard navigation learning section for a good cheat sheet (though not every shortcut is listed here. Check the menus for the rest). In there you'll see a list of shortcuts for everything: navigating just the unread headlines, switching between groups of feeds, bookmarking in del.icio.us - the works.
One of my favorite pleasant surprises in endo, however, is the ability to select different groups simply by typing a letter or two of their name. No need to pick up a mouse - just type a few letters of one of your group's names, and you'll see a slick overlay (pictured) containing those letters as you're immediately transported to the first matching group (as a side note: if you're interested in a web-based reader, Google Reader also does this. If I couldn't use desktop software, Google Reader would be my only preferred option. No other web-based readers exist in my world). This is a great way to get around, especially if you have a long list of groups like I do.
If you're interested in endo, Adriaan provides a 21-day demo from his infinite sushi site. A licenses costs a mere $17.95, and you can score an endo + ecto (Adriaan's popular blogging app) bundle for $26.93, saving 50% off ecto.
