The Ticker View
The Ticker is the view you normally associate with this type of
application. Firstly, it scrolls. You can choose horizontally or vertically and
you can dock the window around the edges of the desktop if required.
The
Ticker shows all the headlines available from a source. As this may be a great
number of headlines, and you may have many monitored sources, you can modify
the source to show a fixed number of headlines (Try: Manage sources..Source
options..Headlines).
Hovering the mouse over a headline stops the ticker
and displays the snippet information in a popup balloon. Clicking the headline
opens a web browser and displays the page the headline linked to on the source
web-site.
You can adjust the speed the Ticker travels in the options menu.
Also, if you click and hold in the Ticker window you can drag the display to
quickly get to any of the headlines. Thumbwheel mice are also supported.
The
horizontal/vertical scroll depends on the shape of window. Tall, thin windows
will scroll vertically, but make the window shorter and wider and it will flip
in to horizontal scrolling - experiment!
The Watch View
The Watch window does not scroll, cannot be docked and does not show
all the headlines. It does, however, show every new headline as it is
retrieved from the source web-site. You can clear the Watch window by right
clicking and selecting clear. Don't forget if you clear the watch you've lost
the headline.
You can retrieve all the headlines for a source by right
clicking on it an selecting "Show all headlines...".
Hovering and clicking
work in the same way as the Ticker.
Which is best?
Summary If you want to see all that's on a web-site choose the Ticker. If you want to see the latest information, as it arrives, choose the Watch.
Good question. Its up to you really!
In our experience people like
the Ticker first of all as it moves, and looks interesting on the desktop,
especially if docked just above the task bar.
However we have found that the
Watch is much more useful for seeing new headlines, as they arrive. People seem
to use the Watch for the latest news and the Ticker for things that they want
to go back to.