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		<title>arFaq.opml</title>
		<dateCreated>Wed, 03 Jul 2002 19:21:20 GMT</dateCreated>
		<dateModified>Mon, 02 Feb 2004 19:31:20 GMT</dateModified>
		<ownerName>Marc Barrot</ownerName>
		<ownerEmail>info@prec-it.com</ownerEmail>
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		<outline text="#title &quot;aR frequently asked questions&quot;"/>
		<outline text="#opmlStory &quot;http://www.activerenderer.com/opml/aR/arFaq.opml&quot;"/>
		<outline text="Last updated: 2/2/04; 2:31:11 PM by MB"/>
		<outline text="&lt;b&gt;General&lt;/b&gt;">
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;Can I use activeRenderer without Radio ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="I'm not sure 'using' is the proper term yet, but if you are a programmer, there are now &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.activerenderer.com/outlines/aR/api.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;activeRenderer APIs&lt;/a&gt; available, both REST and XML-RPC, so that you may render OPML outlines and RSS feeds from other languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Java or Javascript." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/opml/aR/api.opml"/>
				<outline text="I hope I'll soon be able to publish tutorials on how to use activeRenderer from other publishing environment, depending on the feedback I get from web developers."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How much does activeRenderer cost ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="The good news is activeRenderer is &lt;b&gt;free&lt;/b&gt;, as in $0.00."/>
				<outline text="Upcoming versions may have subscription based modules, the usage of which will be restricted to subscribers, paying a modest yearly fee."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How do I register activeRenderer ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="First, if you don't have one already, you need to obtain a serial number from aR's &lt;a href=&quot;http://register.xml-rpc.it/itstories/story$num=3&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;registration service&lt;/a&gt;.">
					<outline text="Registration is &lt;b&gt;free&lt;/b&gt; and fast. I just want to have an idea of how many people are using this tool."/>
					<outline text="Correction, I'm very sorry to admit that registration these days is  sometimes a hassle :-/ We're moving the service from its current residence in Northern Italy to Precision IT Management server room in NYC, where I hope I will be able to provide a simpler and more reliable service.">
						<outline text="I apologize to the victims of the serial invalid serial number problem."/>
						</outline>
					<outline text="The registration service emails you aR's serial number, so please provide a valid email address."/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="Then, enter (or paste) the serial number in aR's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/register/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;registration form&lt;/a&gt;, and click Save.">
					<outline text="The registration form is displayed in a 'pop-under' window each time you start Radio, until you have registered your copy of activeRenderer.">
						<outline text="&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/reg1.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Registration form&quot;&gt;"/>
						</outline>
					<outline text="You can also access the registration page from aR's browser page, or by selecting the Tools / activeRenderer / Register... menu in Radio."/>
					<outline text="When your copy of aR is registered, the Registration page simply displays your serial number.">
						<outline text="&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/reg2.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Completed registration form&quot;&gt;"/>
						</outline>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How do I check activeRenderer's current version ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="In your browser, aR's currently installed version is displayed on Radio's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;desktop website page&lt;/a&gt;, in the status center." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/vers1.gif"/>
				<outline text="You may also see it displayed in the activeRenderer paragraph of Radio's Tools page" type="link" url="http://127.0.0.1:5335/system/pages/tools"/>
				<outline text="Within the Radio application, you can select the Tools / activeRenderer / About menu." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/vers2.gif"/>
				<outline text="Last, hovering the mouse cursor on any site displaying the activeRenderer tile logo or 'how this works' mention will display the version of activeRenderer used to publish that site." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/vers3.gif"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;What is the latest version and where can I get it ?&lt;/b&gt;" isEditable="true" isMoveable="true">
				<outline text="Latest available version is &lt;b&gt;2.0.3&lt;/b&gt;."/>
				<outline text="Download it by following these &lt;a href=&quot;http://download.activerenderer.com/&quot;&gt;instructions&lt;/a&gt;." type="link" url="http://download.activerenderer.com/"/>
				</outline>
			</outline>
		<outline text="&lt;b&gt;Operation&lt;/b&gt;">
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How do I access activeRenderer's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Browser&lt;/a&gt; ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="With the Radio application in the foreground, select the Tools / activeRenderer / Browser... menu." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/browserMenu.gif"/>
				<outline text="Or, from your weblog's local home page, locate the StatusCenter section in the right sidebar, and click the activeRenderer Tool link." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/statCenter.gif"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How do I access activeRenderer's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/preferences&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Preferences&lt;/a&gt; ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="With the Radio application in the foreground, select the Tools / activeRenderer / Preferences... menu." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/prefMenu.gif"/>
				<outline text="There is also a link to preferences in activeRenderer's browser top menu." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/topMenuPrefs.gif"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How do I disable auto-update ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="In activeRenderer's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/preferences&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Preferences&lt;/a&gt; page, clear the &quot;Update activeRenderer automatically at startup.&quot; checkbox, then click Save." type="link" url="http://www.activeRenderer.com/images/faq/autoUpdate.gif"/>
				<outline text="auto-update won't work anyway if your copy of aR is not registered."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How do I get rid of activeRenderer ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="Had enough? activeRenderer tries to disappear gracefully which is easier said than done :-)"/>
				<outline text="Basically, all you have to do is quit Radio, then pull the &lt;i&gt;activeRenderer.root&lt;/i&gt; file out of Radio's &lt;i&gt;Tools&lt;/i&gt; folder.">
					<outline text="That's it. It's that easy."/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="And the result should be :">
					<outline text="Locally customized activeRenderer templates are archived in the &lt;i&gt;activeRender&lt;/i&gt; subfolder of the Radio application folder."/>
					<outline text="&lt;i&gt;activeRenderer.root&lt;/i&gt; is gone from Radio's Tools folder."/>
					<outline text="The non outlined templates, which were archived at the time of aR's installation if you selected either outline styles for your weblog, are restored."/>
					<outline text="The Browser option disappears from the top menu in Radio's desktop website page."/>
					<outline text="The &lt;i&gt;www/activeRenderer&lt;/i&gt; folder is removed."/>
					<outline text="The&lt;i&gt; www/outlines&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;www/opml&lt;/i&gt; folder stay, to avoid any broken links on the public site."/>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;What is auto-upstream ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="When you start Radio with activeRenderer in your &lt;i&gt;Tools&lt;/i&gt; directory, aR tries to locate your 'instant outline' opml file in &lt;i&gt;www/instantOutliner&lt;/i&gt; and duplicates it in &lt;i&gt;www/outlines&lt;/i&gt; for upstreaming as dynamic HTML."/>
				<outline text="You can disable auto-upstreaming by unchecking the 'Upstream instant outline at startup' preference in aR's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/preferences&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Preferences page&lt;/a&gt;." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/autoUpstream.gif"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;What is outline mirroring ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="When auto-mirror is checked in aR's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/preferences&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;preferences&lt;/a&gt;, any outline saved from Radio's outliner into the &lt;i&gt;outlines&lt;/i&gt; folder or one of its subfolders is automatically copied in the &lt;i&gt;opml&lt;/i&gt; folder hierarchy, and vice versa." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/autoMirror.gif"/>
				<outline text="Any file saved under the &lt;i&gt;outlines&lt;/i&gt; folder hierarchy is upstreamed to the public site as a dynamic HTML page."/>
				<outline text="Where as files saved under &lt;i&gt;opml&lt;/i&gt; are upstreamed to the public site in their native OPML format."/>
				<outline text="Checking the mirroring preference is a convenient way to keep outlines on the public site in both formats.">
					<outline text="The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.activerenderer.com/outlines/aR/aRMacros.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;storyBox&lt;/a&gt; macro creates a link to the OPML version from the HTML rendered page." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/storyBox.gif"/>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;Can I publish outlines to separate public sites ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="...Needless to say from the same Radio installation ?"/>
				<outline text="The answer is yes, and probably requires a dedicated tutorial."/>
				<outline text="Here are the main steps :">
					<outline text="You need to create a Radio &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/system/pages/editCategory&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;category&lt;/a&gt; for each public site you want to publish outlines to." type="link" url="http://radio.userland.com/stories/storyReader$7004"/>
					<outline text="In each category's folder, create a &lt;a href=&quot;http://radio.userland.com/stories/storyReader$6743&quot; target=&quot;&quot;&gt;#upstream.xml&lt;/a&gt; file with the parameters for your upstream method.">
						<outline text="The trick is to figure out how to store the password :-)" type="link" url="http://radio.userland.com/stories/storyReader$6917"/>
						</outline>
					<outline text="Post an item to each of these new categories and check Radio's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/system/pages/eventsLog&quot; target=&quot;&quot;&gt;events log&lt;/a&gt; to make sure that upstreaming works as planned."/>
					<outline text="Quit and restart Radio: activeRenderer will create &lt;i&gt;&lt;i&gt;activeRenderer&lt;/i&gt;, outlines&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;opml&lt;/i&gt; subfolders for each category folder upstreamed to a site different from the main weblog site.">
						<outline text="All you need now is save outlines to those folders."/>
						</outline>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			</outline>
		<outline text="&lt;b&gt;Outlining weblogs&lt;/b&gt;">
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;Can I use activeRenderer without the outlined weblog style ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="You sure can."/>
				<outline text="In its default setting, aR works as a simple OPML outline renderer."/>
				<outline text="You need to actually check the outlined weblog style preferences in aR's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/preferences&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Preferences&lt;/a&gt; page to activate any of the two outlined styles." type="link" url="http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/preferences"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;I've selected the 'Outline publication dates' rendering mode, can I get rid of the 'Latest' widget ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="Sure, just uncheck the 'Display Latest widget' option in aR's &lt;a href=&quot;http://127.0.0.1:5335/activeRenderer/preferences&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;preferences&lt;/a&gt;." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/displayLatest.gif"/>
				<outline text="You may also move the &lt;i&gt;daySwitch&lt;/i&gt; macro call somewhere else in the home template file &lt;i&gt;#homeTemplate.txt&lt;/i&gt;." type="link" url="http://www.activerenderer.com/images/faq/daySwitch.gif"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How do I make liveTopics work with activeRenderer's outlined weblog style ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.novissio.com/products/liveTopics/liveTopics.html&quot;&gt;liveTopics&lt;/a&gt; packs a number of post level macros which must be manually inserted in the &lt;i&gt;#itemTemplate.txt&lt;/i&gt; file in &lt;i&gt;www&lt;/i&gt;.">
					<outline text="As of early July, these macros were liveTopics, liveTopicsGoogleBug and liveTopicsGoogleJazz, but Matt has kept improving liveTopics since."/>
					<outline text="Refer to &lt;a href=&quot;http://radio.weblogs.com/0107808/outlines/liveTopics.html&quot;&gt;liveTopics&lt;/a&gt;'s documentation macros reference for more details, in the Installation / Configuration section." type="link" url="http://radio.weblogs.com/0107808/outlines/liveTopics.html"/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="If your main item template already has any of these macros, and you then select aR's extreme outline style presentation, you will temporarily loose the liveTopics macros.">
					<outline text="aR replaces  your main item template in &lt;i&gt;www&lt;/i&gt; with its own outlined style &lt;i&gt;#itemTemplate.txt&lt;/i&gt;."/>
					<outline text="This new template does not include any of liveTopics macros as a default."/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="All is not lost though, since aR thoughtfully backed up your original &lt;i&gt;#itemTemplate.txt&lt;/i&gt; file in &lt;i&gt;www/activeRenderer/local/backup&lt;/i&gt;."/>
				<outline text="What you should do is copy the liveTopics macro calls from your original template, and paste them back into the new outlined template."/>
				<outline text="When modifying the new outline template in this simple way, remember to increment the version number at the top of the template to some high value (typically over 100). This has 3 benefits :">
					<outline text="Your custom template will not be automatically overwritten if a newer version of the template is delivered as part of aR's auto-update feature."/>
					<outline text="If you go back to a non outlined style, your custom &lt;i&gt;#itemTemplate.txt&lt;/i&gt; file will be saved in &lt;i&gt;www/activeRenderer/local/backup/custom&lt;/i&gt;, and it will be used again instead of aR's default if you decide to activate the extreme outline style later."/>
					<outline text="If you decide to uninstal aR completely, your custom &lt;i&gt;#itemTemplate.txt&lt;/i&gt; file will be archived to the newly created &lt;i&gt;activeRenderer&lt;/i&gt; folder in Radio's application folder."/>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			</outline>
		<outline text="&lt;b&gt;Troubleshooting&lt;/b&gt;">
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;My home page displays [Macro error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name &quot;wedgeTitle&quot; hasn't been defined.] everywhere - Help !&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="You're a victim of the no longer mysterious &lt;i&gt;#prefs.txt&lt;/i&gt; update bug, that I now have eradicated."/>
				<outline text="The cure is simple :">
					<outline text="Open the &lt;i&gt;#prefs.txt&lt;/i&gt; file you will find in Radio's &lt;i&gt;www&lt;/i&gt; folder with a text editor."/>
					<outline text="Remove any blank line you find between the first line and the next non blank one."/>
					<outline text="Save the result, then republish your home page (Radio / Publish / Weblog Home Page menu in Radio)."/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="Just in case, manually update aR to the latest available version (Tools / activeRenderer / Update menu).">
					<outline text="The problem came from activeRendererSuite.utils.checkPrefs.">
						<outline text="Versions of this code modified on July 31st or later are safe."/>
						</outline>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;I'm running MacOS 9, and aR won't update (or any other odd behaviour). What did I do wrong ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="The only wrong thing you are doing is running MacOS 9.">
					<outline text="Do yourself (and Apple Computers) a favor and upgrade to OS X."/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="Allocate more memory (all you can afford) to the Radio application.">
					<outline text="aR's installation and update code is multi-threaded."/>
					<outline text="MacOS 9 is notoriously lame at handling multithreaded code (among other debilities). Such code requires tons of free memory in this environment."/>
					<outline text="Besides, versions of activeRenderer prior to 1.3.4 were using a recursive algorithm for rendering, coupled with handling 'outline' Frontier objects.">
						<outline text="As my experience of Usertalk grew, I realised this was the worst possible scenario as far as memory usage (or waste rather) and performance were concerned."/>
						<outline text="Newer versions of aR use a much faster and sparer string based non recursive algorithm.">
							<outline text="Yet, do update your system to MacOS X a.s.a.p."/>
							</outline>
						</outline>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;b&gt;How come accented letters, such as &amp;agrave; or &amp;uuml; are not rendered properly on my Macintosh ?&lt;/b&gt;">
				<outline text="Ok, I cheated, so that the previous line renders fine."/>
				<outline text="My knowledge of XML character coding conventions is still a little thin, so foreign characters are sometimes rendered in a bizarre way.">
					<outline text="It doesn't help that Radio encodes its OPML files in ISO-8859-1, which is not even XML compliant."/>
					<outline text="But I'm working on accents rendering (I no longer depend on Radio's apparently flawed translations), and will eventually come up with something that works correctly."/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="In the meantime, I'm entering all accented letters I include into outlines in HTML entity encoded form: &amp;amp;agrave; for &amp;agrave;, &amp;amp;uuml; for &amp;uuml;. This is not valid XML btw."/>
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